Professional soccer’s Pohang Steelers defeated Jeonbuk Hyundai to win their fifth Korean Football Association (FA) Cup title.
Pohang won the 2023 Hana OneQ FA Cup final against Jeonbuk 4-2 on Thursday at the Pohang Steel Yard, with Kim Jong-woo breaking a 2-2 tie in the 32nd minute and Hong Yun-sang scoring the winner in second-half stoppage time.
Pohang regained the FA Cup trophy for the first time in 10 years after winning the 2013 edition, which they also won in the final against Jeonbuk.
They also increased their total number of titles to five (1996-2008-2012-2013-2023), tying them with Jeonbuk and Suwon Samsung for the most wins.
The victory was made even sweeter by the fact that it came on the 50th anniversary of the club’s founding. Pohang was founded in April 1973.
In addition to the 300 million won in prize money, Pohang also earned a spot in the 2024-2025 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League Elite (ACLE).
Starting in the 2024-2025 season, the ACLE will be established at the top of the existing Champions League (ACL), with three ACLE spots allocated to Korea.
While discussions between the Korea Football Association and the KFA, the organization that has the final say on whether one of the ACLE berths will be awarded to the FA Cup winner, who will take over the top club competition status from the ACL, are still ongoing, it’s safe to say that Pohang, the FA Cup winner, is virtually assured of a spot in the inaugural ACLE.
“It is the basic policy of the Football Association that the FA Cup winner should qualify for the top club competition,” said an official from the Football Association, adding, “Even if there is a change in this policy, it is in the ‘realm of common sense’ that Pohang, which has already won the FA Cup, should participate in the ACLE for the 2024-2025 season.”
By securing their ACLE tickets early, Pohang has taken the pressure off of their remaining three K League 1 matches.
Under the KFA’s existing ticket allocation policy, the second-place team in K League 1 qualifies for the ACLE, and with three games remaining, Pohang is second (60 points), Gwangju FC is third (57 points), and Jeonbuk is fourth (53 points).
Conversely, Jeonbuk needs to win all of its remaining matches to qualify for the ACLE and hope for an ‘upset runner-up’ finish.
More importantly for Jeonbuk than Pohang is what the K League will decide about the “mistaken substitution” incident that occurred in the 35th round of the K League One match between Jeonbuk and Pohang.
The match ended in a 1-1 draw, but Jeonbuk had requested a 0-3 forfeit from Pohang.
Jeonbuk has yet to win an official match against Pohang this season, drawing one and losing four.
The tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award went to Kim Jong-woo, who scored the game-winning goal, while Pohang head coach Kim Ki-dong won the coach’s award.
It was Kim’s first championship since taking over in 2019.
Jeonbuk’s Gustavo was the top scorer with five goals.
Pohang’s attack was led by Kim In-sung, 안전카지노사이트 who was at the center of the substitution scandal, as well as Zeca and Ko Young-joon.
For Jeonbuk, Gustavo, Song Min-kyu, and Han Gyo-won were in goal hunting mode up front.
Song Min-kyu, who made his professional debut with Pohang and played for four years before moving to Jeonbuk in 2021, opened the scoring for his hometown team.
Song Min-gyu opened the scoring in the 17th minute when he connected with a low cross from Gustavo with a right-footed non-stop shot that was saved by Jeonbuk goalkeeper Hwang In-jae.
Pohang equalized in the 44th minute through Han Chan-hee.
Go Young-jun’s low cross from the left side hit the feet of a Jeonbuk defender and flowed to the front of the goal area, where Han Chan-hee finished with a non-stop right-footed shot to make it 1-1.
Jeonbuk took the lead again in the sixth minute of the second half when Gustavo scored on a penalty kick.
Earlier, Jeonbuk’s Jung Woo-jae received the ball inside the penalty area and was roughly tackled by Pohang’s Shin Kwang-hoon, but the referee called a foul on Shin after video assistant referee (VAR) review.
Pohang did not stand still.
In the 29th minute of the second half, Zeca tied the game at 2-2 with a picturesque non-stop volley that was trapped by Munjeon’s Ko Young-joon with his chest.
In the end, it was Pohang who had the last laugh.
Midfielder Kim Jong-woo, who has worn a Pohang jersey this season, scored the winning goal in his Pohang debut.
In the 29th minute, he received a pass from Kim Seung-dae in the midfield and fired an unstoppable left-footed mid-range shot from the penalty spot into the bottom right corner of the goal.
Pohang celebrated the victory in late stoppage time when Hong Yun-sang scored the wedge goal with a right-footed curling shot from the left side of the goal area.
The Korean national team’s head coach Jürgen Klinsmann and coach Cha Doo-ri visited the stadium to check on the players’ performance. 온라인카지노