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| South Korean men's national team celebrates with a trophy after winning the EAFF E-1 Football Championship at Busan Asiad Main Stadium in the southern port city of Busan, Wednesday. Yonhap |
By John Duerden
As the end of the year approaches, it is natural to look back and there is plenty to look back upon in South Korean soccer in 2019.
The National Team
It started in January with the Asian Cup, the continent's biggest competition. The Taegeuk Warriors have not lifted the trophy since 1960 so it was time. Paulo Bento had been appointed as coach in August and this was his first test. All three group games against the Philippines, Kyrgyzstan and China. None of it was especially dominating but it is fine to start tournaments slowly. Then Korea squeezed past Bahrain after extra-time to book a last eight date with Qatar. And that was it. Korea lost 1-0 to the eventual champion.
The team never really got going and it was all a little disappointing. The start of qualification for the 2022 World Cup has been similar. After wins over Turkmenistan and Sri Lanka came goalless ties with North Korea ― the game in Pyongyang was farcical with no fans and no broadcast ― and Lebanon.
That means that South Korea ends the year in second place in the group needing to finish top to be certain of heading to the next round. That should happen but coach Bento needs to figure out how to get the best out of stars such as Son Heung-min and Hwang Hee-chan.
K League
After years of declining attendances that fell all to the way under 6,000 on average in 2018, Asia's oldest professional league showed some life last season with the average crowd over 8,000. The total may be modest but if there is a similar increase next year then there really will be something to talk about especially as baseball's average attendance was just into the five figures.
On the field, Jeonbuk Motors stole in on the final day to take a fifth title in six seasons from the faltering Ulsan Horangi. The Tigers will be kicking themselves but the season goes until the final minute.
FC Seoul finished third, though a long way behind, and returned to the Asian Champions League with Daegu FC and Gangwon FC enjoying fine seasons.
Yet perhaps the biggest surprise was the relegation of Gyeongnam FC and Jeju United. Gyeongnam finished second in 2018, the position that Jeju occupied the year before. Both will be now looking to get out of the second tier in 2020.
The women
The Taegeuk Nangja was in a tough group in the Women's World Cup and it started with a 4-0 loss against host France in Paris. A loss was expected but the defeats against Nigeria and Norway meant that the team, which had made the knockout stage four years earlier, went back home from France without a single point.
It was a disappointment. There were big moves to England for Cho So-hyun who went to West Ham and Lee Geum-min who signed for Manchester City and with Ji So-yun still going well, the future looks bright and the appointment of experienced Englishman Colin Bell as head coach late in the year should give the team an extra edge.
2020 should be another exciting year.
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