Lee Geum-min scores in season opener for Brighton

A tweet on the official Brighton & Hove Albion Women Twitter account celebrates Lee Geum-min's goal in the opening game of the season against West Ham on Sunday. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Brighton & Hove Albion striker Lee Geum-min scored a goal for Brighton in the club's opening game of the England Women's Super League 2021-22 season against West Ham on Sunday.

After a successful season on loan from Manchester City, Lee joined Albion permanently this June and started the season on good form, converting for the team in her first match as a permanent player.

On Sunday, Inessa Kaagman opened the scoring to give Brighton an early lead. Lee found her chance just seven minutes later, slotting in the ball from close range. With West Ham’s Hawa Cissoko sent off with a red card, the London club couldn’t figure out Albion until the end and the match finished 2-0.

During Lee’s time at Albion on loan, she scored three goals in her first season, including a 30-yard screamer that found the back of the Reading net and became the Goal of the Season in May. This year she could be on to bigger and better things if she can continue her momentum from the opening game.

Back home in Korea, Lee is a national team regular with 50 caps and 16 goals to her name. Before heading to England, she played for two years at the Gyeongju Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Women's Football Club, where she scored 21 goals in 36 matches.

Lee will once again represent Korea at the upcoming 2022 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women’s Asian Cup, which will double as the Asian qualifying tournament for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Led by head coach Colin Bell, the national team includes Chelsea star Ji So-yun and Tottenham Hotspur's Cho So-hyun.

Korea is in Group E and will face Mongolia and Uzbekistan with only the winner of the group reaching the World Cup. Korea faces Mongolia on Sept. 17 and Uzbekistan on Sept. 23.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]