Korea crash out of Olympic qualifiers after 1-1 draw with China

The South Korean women’s football team suffered a late equalizer to draw 1-1 with China on Wednesday, crashing out of the 2024 Paris Olympic qualifiers and failing to reach an eighth consecutive Games.

Korea's Ji So-yun, left, competes for the ball with Yao Wei of China during a AFC Women's Olympic Asian Qualifying Group B match at Xiamen Egret Stadium in Xiamen, China on Wednesday. [XINHUA/YONHAP]

The South Korean women’s football team suffered a late equalizer to draw 1-1 with China on Wednesday, crashing out of the 2024 Paris Olympic qualifiers and failing to reach an eighth consecutive Games.

It was a tight final Group B game in the second round of the 2024 AFC Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament at Xiamen Egret Stadium in Xiamen, China, with neither team able to make an impact in the first half.

South Korea finally broke through with a Shim Seo-yeon goal in the 62nd minute, only for Wang Shanshan to tie things up in the 78th minute.

Had South Korea been able to hold on just a little longer, they would have walked away from the match with three points and taken the top spot in Group B on goal difference, advancing to the third round.

Instead, North Korea took first place with seven points, two more than South Korea’s five, advancing to the third round while the Taeguk Ladies head home empty-handed.

It’s a disappointing finish for a South Korean squad who had seen some of their best results in recent years during the group stage.

The Taeguk Ladies kicked things off with a decisive 10-1 win over Thailand that saw both Casey Phair and Chun Ga-ram score a hat trick. South Korea then held North Korea to a 0-0 draw just a month after losing to them 4-1 in the quarterfinals of the Hangzhou Asian Games.

The draw with China is also a solid result — the Taeguk Ladies lost 3-2 to China in the final of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup last year and have only beaten the larger country five times in their 42 meetings, losing 29 games and drawing eight.

But despite being undefeated in the tournament, only one team is able to advance in each round of qualifiers and South Korea’s Olympic journey ends before it really started.

North Korea advances to the third round of Olympic qualifiers where they will face Japan for a shot at one of two spots in the Games. Australia and Uzbekistan will play each other for the other berth.

South Korea have never qualified for the women’s football tournament at the Olympics since it was first introduced in 1996. In recent years, China has played a key role in knocking the Taeguk Ladies out of the tournament.

In 2020, South Korea made it all the way to the play-off round, the equivalent of this year’s third round, but were knocked out by China on aggregate — again with a draw in their final game.

In 2016 the tournament had three rounds, with the final round taking the form of a six-team group where the top two teams advance to the Games. South Korea finished fourth that year, with losses to China and Australia sealing that fate.

In 2012 South Korea finished fifth, although it was Japan, North Korea and Australia that dealt the killing blows. China also was not involved in Korea’s 2008 loss, having qualified for the Games automatically that year as hosts.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]