Starters against Germany (sorry I don't know the hangul) : 1 KIM MINJUNG (GK) 5 HONG HYEJI (C) 6 MEANG DAHEE 7 NAMGUNG YEJI 8 PARK YEEUN 10 JANG CHANG 13 HAN CHAERIN 14 KIM SOEUN 16 KO YOOJIN 17 YOON SUNYOUNG 20 LEE AIN
Huge blow for KWNT following the draw for the 2018 Women's Asian Cup qualifiers. KWNT have been drawn into the same group as North Korea, who will also host all of the group games. Given that the record against North Korea is 1W 2D 14L (winless since 2005) and only the first-placed team qualifies, KWNT are likely to miss out on Women's Asian Cup for the first time in their history since they first entered in 1991. Also, this means that they will also be missing out on the 2019 Women's World Cup, which is a shame, given that AFC are getting 5 slots since the 2015 edition.
This also puts a good deal of pressure on the North. I bet they would rather forfeit the match against us and be fined by AFC because playing South Korean Aegukga while raising Taegeukgi at the heart of Pyongyang is something they consider as nightmare.
After a bit of a lackluster 0-0 draw against Austria in the Cypress Cup, Korea beats a decent Scotland team 2-0 in match #2 to go joint top of their group. They face New Zealand in the group finale on March 6 Europe time. Korea right now on 4 points, Austria (beat New Zealand), Scotland on 3 (beat New Zealand), New Zealand on 0.
A 2-0 win over New Zealand combined with Scotland beating Austria 3-1 means South Korea wins Group B with 7 points. Group A winners are Switzerland with 7 points, Group C is Ireland with 7 points. Tiebreaker, I think, is goal differential which results in Switzerland playing South Korea for the Cyprus Cup on March 8th (Ireland will play North Korea for 3rd place).
ICYMI, Switzerland scored in the 2nd half of the Cyprus Cup Final yesterday to win it 1-0. Still, generally a good tournament for South Korea ahead of tough Asian Cup qualifying next month.
http://sports.news.naver.com/kfootball/news/read.nhn?oid=413&aid=0000047284 Finalized Roster for 2018 AFC Women's Asian Cup Qualifier in Pyongyang # 여자 대표팀 아시안컵 예선 명단(23명) GK: 강가애(구미스포츠토토), 김정미(인천현대제철), 민유경(수원시설관리공단) DF: 김혜리·임선주·김도연(이상 인천현대제철), 신담영·이은미(수원시설관리공단), 홍혜지(고베 아이낙), 서현숙(이천 대교) MF: 장슬기·이민아·조소현·이영주(이상 인천 현대제철), 강유미(화천 KSPO), 문미라·권은솜(이천 대교), 이소담(구미스포츠토토) FW: 이금민(서울시청), 정설빈·전가을(이상 인천 현대제철), 지소연(첼시 레이디스), 유영아(구미 스포츠토토) GK: KANG Ga-ae (Gumi Sports Toto) KIM Jung-mi (Incheon Hyundai Steel) MIN Yu-kyung (Suwon FMC) DF: KIM Hye-ri (Incheon Hyundai Steel) LIM Seon-ju (Incheon Hyundai Steel) KIM Do-yeon (Incheon Hyundai Steel) SHIN Dam-young (Suwon FMC) LEE Eun-mi (Suwon FMC) HONG Hye-ji (Kobe INAC, JPN) SEO Hyun-suk (Icheon Daegyo) MF: JANG Seul-ki (Incheon Hyundai Steel) LEE Mina (Incheon Hyundai Steel) CHO So-hyeon (Incheon Hyundai Steel) LEE Young-ju (Incheon Hyundai Steel) KANG Yoo-mi (Hwacheon KSPO) MOON Mi-ra (Icheon Daegyo) KWON Eun-som (Icheon Daegyo) LEE So-dam (Gumi Sports Toto) FW: LEE Geum-min (Seoul City) JEONG Seol-bin (Incheon Hyundai Steel) JEON Ga-eul (Incheon Hyundai Steel) JI So-yun (Chealsea, ENG) YOO Young-ah (Gumi Sports Toto)
do they have to travel to pyongyang? wish AFC/FIFA bans any international football matches there.. it's dangerous.
Mmm... yes.. in light of what is (effectively) the hostage-taking of Malaysian citizens in Pyongyang following the recent unpleasantness in Kuala Lumpur, there is some cause for concern. I doubt anything will happen, but it does place a psychological burden on the players. Still -- as GoYoungrokba said above -- the sight of the Taegeuk flag flying in the center of Pyongyang will be quite something.
Unless the AFC moves the group, yes. Given this is Asian Cup qualifying and the Asian Cup serves as World Cup qualifying, this is a critical set of games. If they fail to win the group, they are out of both the 2018 Asian Cup and the 2019 Women's World Cup.
@DynamoManiac - do you have the scoop on why Cho So Hyun came back to Korea already? Did her time at Kobe not go well? I see Hong Hye-Ji has gone there.
I haven't spoken with her in a while, but her deal with Kobe was always for 1 year. She did quite well there, starting most games, scoring goals, etc. I suspect Hyundai Steel wanted her back for the final year of her contract (she is out of contract after this season), especially since Kim Na-rae is no longer with the team.
Prob getting too old for it but I hope she can make the leap to the US one of these days. But like I said, most US teams probably not going to take a foreign holding midfielder.
To the AFC qualifier watchers.. I didn't see the game yesterday: was India that bad or was North Korea just trying to rack up the goals in anticipation that the South might play for a draw on Sunday (since in that case goal-difference would likely be the tournament decider)? I guess there is now some pressure on the the South to also put a ton past India tomorrow to account for the same possibility. Feel a bit sorry for the Indian girls, who are not nearly in the same class as either Korean team... But somehow I don't think the North-South game going to be a draw, and I don't think either team is going to play for one.
In the grand scheme of things, India is not very good. They are one of the best teams in South Asia (along with Myanmar), but South Asian teams routinely concede double digit goals against any half decent team. That said, this match probably ends up like 5-0 under normal circumstances. I've no doubt that North Korea went for the jugular given goal differential may end up being key if the two Korea's end up drawing their match.
pretty sure i read that korea is going for a double digit goal telly against india. if i read correctly they were surprised north korea only scored 8
Korea beat India 10-0 back in 2014. That match was in Incheon. India has gotten much better since then. Is it possible? Sure. However, going in with an attitude of, "why didn't they score more and we expect to score double digits" tends to not work out so well. Especially early in a tournament like this where the weaker team isn't physically worn out yet. China and North Korea expected to similarly blow out Vietnam in Olympic qualifying last year. China only won 2-0, North Korea only won 1-0. Wasn't until their 3rd match in 6 days that Vietnam finally collapsed (these one day off between matches tourneys really hurt the weaker teams that maybe have a decent first XI but lack depth) and lost 9-0 to Australia. Then 6-1 to Japan and finally 4-0 to South Korea. If I was a betting man, I'd wager on India holding it closer than 8-0, but we'll see.
Yes, the tendency after losing an opening match 8-0 is just to sit back and defend. I'd be surprised if Korea puts more than 8 past them, but we'll find out in a couple of hours. I see DPRK had a bit of trouble with Hong Kong earlier today.. it was "only" 1-0 at HT. However it ended 5-0. PS -- I meant Friday (not Sunday, as I wrote above) for the big match -- don't know what I was thinking.