Red Angels jump from third to first to claim WK League title

The Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels pose for a photo before a WK League match against the Seoul City Amazones at Namdong Stadium in Incheon on Tuesday. [KOREA WOMEN'S FOOTBALL FEDERATION]

The Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels won the WK League for the 11th consecutive season in dramatic fashion on Tuesday, beating the Seoul City Amazones 6-0 to leapfrog Hwacheon KSPO and Suwon FC and claim first place.

The Red Angels were in third place with 39 points on the table before Tuesday's match, with KSPO sitting at the top with 40 and Suwon in second with 39.

With only one point separating the three and Suwon and KSPO facing each other on the same day, the Red Angels needed to not only win their game, but also for Suwon and KSPO to draw to allow the Incheon club to jump from third to first and steal the title.

And that is exactly what happened. The Red Angels thrashed the Amazones 6-0 with two braces from Jang Sel-gi and Jung Seol-bin at Namdong Stadium in Incheon, while Suwon and KSPO drew 2-2.

The Incheon side topped the table with 42 points, while KSPO finished as runners-up with 41 points and Suwon coming in third with 40.

No more league fixtures remain for the three teams and the regular season will end after a match between Sejong Sportstoto and Changnyeong WFC on Sunday.

The postseason, in which the league winners, runners-up and third-place team compete, will start in November.

KSPO and Suwon will first face each other in the first playoff and the winner of that match will play the Red Angels in a home-and-away format championship.

The Red Angels were crowned as overall champions last season after beating Gyeongju KHNP 2-0 in the championship.

The Incheon side saw great success again this season, recording 13 wins, three draws and five losses and managing 36 goals — tying with Suwon for the most goals as of Wednesday.

Jung was the Red Angels’ top scorer with 10 goals in 20 matches, while her teammate Choi Yu-jung scored seven.

Suwon’s Moon Mi-ra is the top scorer with 12 goals as of Wednesday, but Sejong’s Hildah Magaia could snatch the position, if she scores four goals in Sunday’s game against Changnyeong. She has scored nine goals so far.

Changnyeong will finish the 2023 season at the bottom of the eight-team table, regardless of Sunday’s result, as the seventh-place Amazones are six points clear of them.

Changnyeong will not be relegated, however, as there is no second division in the WK League.

Only eight teams exist in Korea’s women’s football with no critical consequences for a team that finishes at the bottom of the table, which has raised concerns that the current system cannot make the league competitive.

Korean women’s national team manager Colin Bell also said during the 2023 Women’s World Cup this year that the WK League players are not used to playing at a high intensity, as the league does not induce the players to perform at that level.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]