Sports Briefs

FOOTBALL

Women’s team lands in North Korea for AFC match

The South Korean women’s national football team left for its journey to North Korea to play a preliminary match for the 2018 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup on Sunday.

The team will travel via China and will arrive in North Korea on Monday.

Yoon Deok-yeo, manager of the South Korean women’s national football team, expressed his high expectation for the match against North Korea in Pyongyang this week during the press conference prior to his departure at Incheon international airport.

“North Korean is ranked higher in FIFA World ranking and they are better than us in strength,” Yoon said. “But through playing multiple games together, we gained confidence and improved on our performance. I expect to see good results.”

This is the first time the South Korean national football team is travelling to North Korea to play a football match since the South Korean men’s national football team travelled to North Korea to play in the North-South Unification match in October 1990.

The South Korean women’s national football team is in the same group as North Korea, Uzbekistan, India and Hong Kong. Only a team finishing first will advance to the AFC Asian Cup as well as FIFA Womens’ World Cup qualification round.

All the matches will be played at the Kim Il-sung Stadium.

Jeonbuk moves into 2nd with 1-0 win over Seoul

Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors FC continues its no-loss season by winning against Seoul F.C. 1-0 at Jeonju World Cup Stadium on Sunday.

Kim Jin-su scored the only goal of the match in the 39th minute, helping Jeonbuk win.

With the win, Jeonbuk improves to three wins, one tie and no loss with ten points.

The win also allowed them to move from fourth to second in the K-league Classic.

Lee Dong-gook did not play in the match as he felt muscle pain during training. Kim currently leads the team with two goals and one assist.

Seoul remains fifth in K-League Classic. Prior to its match against Jeonbuk, Seoul did not lose a match in the season.

Jeju United maintained its top K-League standing after a tie match against Gwangju FC. The K-league Classic will continue its round five matches next week.

Yonhap