K League competition heats up as FC Seoul beats Suwon FC

The competition in the middle of the K League standings is fierce, with FC Seoul stepping up to seventh place beating Suwon FC 3-1 on Sunday at home. Hwang In-beom started a match with the Seoul club for the second time.

Ulsan Hyundai’s Jun Amano, left plays the ball against Suwon Samsung Bluewings on Thursday at Suwon World Cup Stadium in Suwon. [NEWS1]

The competition in the middle of the K League standings is fierce, with FC Seoul stepping up to seventh place beating Suwon FC 3-1 on Sunday at home. Hwang In-beom started a match with the Seoul club for the second time.

The K League resumed on May 5 after a three-week hiatus when club players took part in the AFC Champions League and FA Cup matches.

FC Seoul is looking stronger after the break, holding defending champions Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors to a 1-1 draw on Thursday and beating Suwon FC 3-1 on Sunday. With the draw against Seoul, Jeonbuk dropped from fourth position to sixth place but they were able to pull off a 1-0 win over Incheon United to move up to fifth position.

The improvement in the Seoul club’s form may be thanks to midfielder Hwang who joined the K League 1 after his contract with Russian club Rubin Kazan was suspended in March following the invasion of Ukraine.

On April 5, FC Seoul announced that Hwang signed a short-term contract with the club to play in the K League until the end of June.

FIFA announced this March that, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, all foreign players and coaches at Russian teams now have the right to suspend their contracts until the end of June. Football's international governing body refused to agree on a more permanent solution.

The only Korean player affected by the announcement was Hwang, who played for Rubin Kazan in the Russian Premier League. He was already in Korea to treat an injury when the announcement was made.

On Sunday, Hwang was on top form. He was behind all three goals that Seoul scored against Suwon FC, distributing and passing the ball to the right places at the right time.

All four goals that day were scored in the second half. Osmar Ibáñez Barba of Seoul opened the scoring in the 62nd minute. Four minutes later, Suwon’s Kim Seung-joon scored what turned out to be the club’s sole goal. Kim Shin-jin scored the Seoul club’s second goal in the 77th minute and Yoon Jong-gyu added the third goal just four minutes later. The goal was made all the more special as Sunday’s match was Yoon’s 100th appearance in the K League.

Alongside FC Seoul, top club Ulsan were able to add three points to the standings on Sunday after a 3-1 victory over Gangwon FC. Daegu beat the Suwon Samsung Bluewings 3-0, Jeonbuk beat Incheon 1-0, the Steelers beat bottom club Seongnam 1-0 and Jeju United beat Gimcheon Sangmu 3-1 on Sunday.

K League fixtures continue Saturday when Gimcheon face Daegu, Ulsan face Incheon and the Bluewings face Seongnam.

BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]