Ji So-yun and Casey Phair lead Korea to 2-1 victory over Czech Republic

Korea's Casey Phair, center, celebrates with her teammates during a friendly with the Czech Republic at City of Football in Portugal on Saturday. [KOREA FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION]

The Korean women’s national team beat the Czech Republic 2-1 in a friendly on Saturday, winning their first match of the year, thanks to goals by Ji So-yun and Casey Phair.

Korea for the most part fielded an experienced squad that included veteran players like Ji, who made her 155th cap on Saturday as the most-capped player for both the men's and women's national teams, and midfielder Jang Sel-gi, who made her 100th.

Ji stood up and opened the scoring in the 16th minute with a tidy free kick right outside the penalty area.

The score stayed 1-0 for the rest of the first half, but Korea kicked things off immediately in the second, thanks to Phair.

The 16-year-old moved swiftly down the side of the pitch and penetrated the Czech defense to score a goal from a tight angle in the 45th minute to make it 2-0.

Eva Bartonova put one back in style with a backflip volley in the 53rd minute, but Korea denied the Czech Republic a comeback by creating more chances at the net.

Still, even with 16 shots recorded in total at the end — compared to four by the Czech Republic — the 2-1 win for Korea was the final result.

It was Korea’s first win since their huge 10-1 victory over Thailand in the second round of the Olympic qualifier match in October last year.

The Taeguk Ladies, however, failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics after finishing as runners-up in Group B. And without a place in Paris, the women's squad has no major international tournaments lined up for the rest of 2024.

Instead, this year may be a tune-up ahead of the 2026 AFC Women’s Asian Cup where Korea could redeem themselves from a disappointing 2023. They crashed out of the 2023 World Cup group stage with one draw and two losses and exited the Hangzhou Asian Games in the quarterfinals.

At the Asian Cup, veteran midfielder Ji, 33, could have one more chance to shine with the experience she will have from the top-tier U.S. National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) team Seattle Reign, which she joined last month on a two-season deal.

As for Phair, she could rise to bigger prominence at the tournament with experience from fellow NWSL team Angel City Football Club where she will make her professional debut.

Prior to joining Angel City last month, she was a trainee at the Players Development Academy in New Jersey. And despite being an amateur yet to turn pro, she became the youngest-ever player to compete at the World Cup in July last year, at 16 years and 26 days old.

Head coach Colin Bell, who has led the national team since 2019, will not be with the squad for the Asian Cup though, if he chooses not to extend his contract that ends in December.

The Taeguk Ladies will play another friendly against Portugal, No. 21 in official FIFA rankings — one spot below Korea — on Tuesday, or Wednesday morning Korea time.

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