Three points separate 10th and 12th place…it’s a real ‘mud fight’

The battle to stay in professional soccer’s K League 1 in 2023 has come down to a full-fledged three-way battle between Suwon FC, Gangwon FC, and Suwon Samsung.

With Suwon Samsung’s 3-2 win over Suwon FC in the 36th round of the Hana OneQ K League 2023 at Suwon Sports Complex on Wednesday, ninth-placed Jeju United (40 points) clinched a spot in the top flight.

This leaves the final battle for survival between 10th-placed Suwon FC (32 points), 11th-placed Gangwon (30 points), and 12th-placed Suwon (29 points).

In K League 1, the 12th place team will be relegated directly, while the 11th and 10th place teams in K League 1 will have to fight for survival in a relegation playoff against K League 2 teams.

With the ninth-place finisher clinched, the three teams in 10th through 12th place in K-League 1 will battle it out for the two promotion playoff spots and one direct relegation spot. A direct relegation for Suwon, once a favorite to finish bottom, is now in doubt.

After struggling with a lack of goals, Suwon turned things around against Suwon FC on Wednesday, with Acosti, Ahn Byung-joon, and Kim Joo-chan all scoring goals. “The biggest gain was that the strikers gained confidence,” said acting head coach Yeom Ki-hoon, adding, “We will take advantage of the confidence of the strikers in the remaining matches to produce good results.”

The only consolation for Suwon FC is that they have the highest point total among the three teams. “We’ve been playing soccer to win, but in the remaining two games, we’ll change our concept to defend our points,” said Kim Do-gyun, head coach of Suwon FC.

The mood in Gangwon province is good, having gotten both a good performance and a result (1-0) against Daejeon Hana Citizens in the previous match. However, both matches are against two teams that are also fighting to stay up. 보스토토 주소

Suwon FC will face Gangwon (Nov. 25) and Jeju (Dec. 2) in their remaining two games. Gangwon faces Suwon FC at home before traveling to face Suwon in the final game. Suwon will play FC Seoul in a supermatch on the 25th and wait for Gangwon at Anbangseo.