Lee Jae-sung heads in winning goal for FSV Mainz

Football

Published: 21 Aug. 2022, 17:02 Updated: 21 Aug. 2022, 17:48

Lee Jae-sung heads in winning goal for FSV Mainz

FSV Mainz celebrates Lee Jae-sung's goal scored against FC Augsburg in a 2-1 victory in Augsburg, Germany, on Saturday. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Lee Jae-sung headed in a winning goal for FSV Mainz in injury time, bringing home a 2-1 victory over FC Augsburg on Saturday.

Mainz opened the scoring in the 30th minute, with Karim Onisiwo shooting with his right foot from outside of the box.

Four minutes later, Augsburg leveled the score with a goal from Ermedin Demirovic shooting with his left foot from the center of the box.

With the score at 1-1, both teams kept quiet for the remainder of the first half and throughout the regular time of the second half.

Lee had started the last two matches but this time was substituted in the 68th minute.

The second half regular time went by with neither team able to pull forward.

Then with just a few minutes left on the clock for injury time, Lee came to the rescue. Lee connected a cross sent over by Aaron Martin from the corner from the left side of the box sending the ball into the bottom right corner, marking his first goal of the season.

It's a good sign for Mainz that Lee has been able to score early into the season. Mainz has not lost a match yet since the Bundesliga season started on Aug. 6. Mainz beat VfL Bochum 2-1 on Aug. 6, then was held to a 0-0 draw against Union Berlin on Aug. 14. Saturday's victory marks their second win of the season.

The Korean national team regular and Mainz midfielder has been playing for Mainz since last season. Having started his career with the Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors in 2014, Lee moved to Holstein Kiel in 2018 and played until 2021. Last season, Lee scored four goals and marked three assists in 27 appearances with Mainz.

With the Taeguk Warriors, Lee has a total of nine goals in his 63 appearances.

Freiburg's Korean midfielder Jeong Woo-yeong, left, and Stuttgart's Japanese defender Hiroki Ito vie for the ball during a Bundesliga match between VfB Stuttgart and SC Freiburg in Stuttgart, Germany, on Saturday. [AFP/YONHAP]

Over the weekend, Lee wasn't the only Korean active in the Bundesliga, with Jeong Woo-yeong of Freiburg playing 30 minutes in their 1-0 victory against VfB Stuttgart, the longest time Jeong has been on the field this season.

Vincenzo Grifo of Freiburg opened the scoring just 11 minutes into the match. Jeong was substituted into the field 15 minutes in the second half and played for 38 minutes.

Jeong has not started a match yet. In his first match of the season, Jeong played only eight minutes in a 4-0 victory over Augsburg on Aug. 6.

There are currently four Koreans active in the German league: Lee of Mainz, Jeong of Freiburg, Lee Dong-jun of Hertha Berlin and Lee Dong-gyeong of Schalke 04.

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