Joo Min-kyu of South Korea celebrates after scoring a goal against China during the teams’ first match of the East Asian Football Federation E-1 Football Championship at Yongin Mireu Stadium in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, on July 7, 2025. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
YONGIN, South Korea, July 7 (Korea Bizwire) — The host country South Korea handled China 3-0 to open an East Asian men’s football tournament Monday.
Lee Dong-gyeong, Joo Min-kyu and Kim Ju-sung scored a goal apiece as South Korea kicked off the East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) E-1 Football Championship with a comfortable win on this sultry night at Yongin Mireu Stadium in Yongin, some 40 kilometers south of Seoul.
South Korea, world No. 23, improved to 24 wins, 13 draws and two losses against 94th-ranked China before a sparse crowd of 4,426 fans.
This is the 10th edition of the E-1 Championship, which began in 2003. The Taegeuk Warriors have won five titles, most recently in 2019.
South Korea will next play Hong Kong at 8 p.m. Friday, and then Japan at 7:24 p.m. on July 15, both at Yongin Mireu Stadium. The team with the most points after the round-robin play will be the champions.
The EAFF event isn’t on the FIFA international match calendar and teams here assembled their squads mostly with players from their domestic leagues or other Asian circuits.
For South Korea, head coach Hong Myung-bo picked 23 players from the domestic K League 1 and three from the J1 League in Japan.
Hong also put together a youthful squad with little prior international exposure. Including second-half substitutes, six players made their senior national team debut Monday.
Hong has said this tournament will be a proving ground for K Leaguers trying to make the national team for next year’s FIFA World Cup. Stars based in Europe and the Middle East are expected to make up the bulk of the World Cup squad, leaving precious few spots for K League players. Hong has also said he specifically picked defenders that he thought had a chance to be called up for the World Cup.
The South Korean starting lineup featured a handful of players with fewer than 10 caps under their belt, including midfielder Kim Bong-soo, who made his senior international debut at age 25. The entire defense corps of Lee Tae-seok, Kim Ju-sung, Park Jin-seob and Park Seung-wook had combined for 17 caps before Monday. Joo, the oldest player on the team at 35, played in only his 10th international match.
South Korea spent the early minutes in their own zone, as China tried to establish control. But it was the home team that opened the scoring in the eighth minute.
Kim Moon-hwan took a long feed from Park Seung-wook on the right wing and flicked the ball to find Lee Dong-gyeong, who quickly undressed multiple defenders to give himself all the time and space for his patented left-footed curler. Goalkeeper Yan Junling couldn’t quite get to the shot that found the top left corner, as Lee got on the scoresheet for the first time since June 2021.
Lee Tae-seok of South Korea (L) heads the ball during his team’s first match of the East Asian Football Federation E-1 Football Championship against China at Yongin Mireu Stadium in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, on July 7, 2025. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
South Korea doubled their lead in the 21st minute with a textbook play, with striker Joo Min-kyu heading home a cross from left back Lee Tae-seok for his third international goal. Lee’s sharp pass landed on Joo’s head, just beyond the reach of defender Zhu Chenjie, and Yan’s diving effort proved futile.
South Korea did not dominate ball possession as expected but converted on their first two shots on target.
China did not give South Korean defenders much of a challenge, with Gao Tianyi’s 38th-minute shot that just went over the bar being their only serious opportunity in the first half.
Moments after the restart, Moon Seon-min sprinted all the way into the goalmouth to fire a shot right at Yan, and couldn’t quite corral his own rebound.
In the 55th minute, Kim Jin-gyu forced Yan to make a tough diving save off a free kick chance from outside the box.
And South Korea went up 3-0 following the ensuing corner taken by Lee Dong-gyeong. After Yan stopped Park Seung-wook’s initial header, Kim Ju-sung volleyed home the rebound while fighting off Zhu.
China’s only dangerous look of the second half came in the 89th minute, when Wei Shihao’s free kick sailed just over the bar.
(Yonhap)
