Busan IPark promoted to K League 1 for 2020

Busan IPark players throw team manager Cho Deok-je into the air at Changwon Football Center Stadium in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, after being promoted to the top-flight K League 1 after four years of relegation, Sunday. Yonhap

Four years after getting relegated to the second division in South Korean football, Busan IPark earned a promotion back to the top-flight K League 1 on Sunday.

Brazilian forward Romulo converted a 77th-minute penalty, as Busan defeated Gyeongnam FC 2-0 in the second leg of the K League promotion-relegation playoff on the road at Changwon Football Center in Changwon, 400 kilometers southeast of Seoul.

Soma Novothny headed home a Diego Mauricio cross in the final seconds of the match to round out the scoring.

Busan prevailed 2-0 on the aggregate score after the two sides played to a scoreless draw in the opening leg last Thursday.

The promotion-relegation playoff was first contested in 2013, pitting the second-to-worst team from the K League 1 against a K League 2 playoff winner.

Busan lost in this playoff in 2015 to suffer a relegation, and then lost in 2017 and 2018 to miss out on a chance to return to the K League 1.

Gyeongnam FC, which earned a direct promotion to the top division after winning the K League 2 in 2017, will fall back to the second division. Gyeongnam finished runners-up to Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors in the K League 1 in 2018.

Busan became the first K League 2 club to earn promotion through the playoff since Gangwon FC in 2016.

The teams were scoreless in a cautious first half, though Gyeongnam goalkeeper Lee Bum-soo came up with a huge save to deny Novothny on a fast break in the 41st minute.

Things opened up a bit in the second half, as the two sides traded glorious chances in the early going.

In the 51st, Gyeongnam forward Kim Hyo-gi took a sharp cross by Lee Jae-moung from left, but his shot rolled past the left post by mere inches.

Some seven minutes later, Busan nearly struck first, but Lee Dong-jun, the reigning K League 2 MVP, saw his gorgeous volley rattle off the crossbar.

Busan broke the deadlock in the 77th when Romulo scored on a penalty past Lee Bum-soo. Moments earlier, Gyeongnam defender Lee Jae-moung was called for a handball violation in the box when he stopped a Diego Mauricio cross with his right arm while falling to the ground.

Romulo stepped up and fired one into the bottom right-hand corner, well out of Lee's reach.

With the away goals rule in effect, Busan still could have won the playoff if the match ended in a 1-1 tie. Gyeongnam needed to score twice in the remaining 13 minutes plus five minutes of stoppage time but couldn't get one past the opposing defense.

With the clock ticking down and a spot in the K League 1 virtually sealed, Novothny put the icing on the cake by heading in a picture-perfect cross from Mauricio. (Yonhap)