Update (2-Oct-2019): Forward Yeo Minji is a late scratch, as she did not travel with the team, per U.S. Soccer.
Earlier this week, the Korean Football Association announced a 24-player roster for the upcoming friendlies against the United States Women’s National Team, which will be played on Thursday, October 3rd, and Sunday, October 6th. These two friendlies are expected to be the final USWNT matches helmed by Jill Ellis, who will be stepping down as head coach following those matches.
The times and TV details for those matches are as follows:
- Thursday, October 3rd at 8:00PM EDT – Fox Sports 1 (pregame at 7:30 PM EDT)
- Sunday, October 6th at 2:00 PM EDT – ESPN
A quick note on Korean names: As in other East Asian countries such as Japan and China, the family name is normally listed first, followed by the given name. The English spellings provided by the KFA may differ slightly from other sources, most notably FIFA’s website, while other sources may include hyphens that FIFA omits.
The Korea Republic Women’s National Team will be led by Hwang In-Sun, who is a former player of that squad. A defensive midfielder in her playing days, Hwang famously scored the lone goal in a third-place match against Japan that sent the Korea Republic to their first-ever Women’s World Cup in 2003 (Wikipedia, 2003 article). Hwang made Korea’s roster for the 2003 WWC, appearing as a substitute in their debut match.
Hwang is only a “caretaker” for the team, following the resignation of Choi In-cheul, who was hired to take over for Yoon Duk-yeo, after his resignation following the 2019 WWC, where Korea Republic lost all three of its group matches, finishing last in its group, behind France, Norway, and Nigeria. As of Thursday, September 26th, the KFA has not yet announced whether a permanent replacement for Choi has been hired.
For more details on Choi In-cheul’s resignation, please see the preceding article:
Korea, who are looking to qualify for the 2020 Olympics, will be bringing a significantly different roster than those selected for the 2019 WWC. Eleven players from the WWC have not been selected, although two of those are due to injuries: Lee Geummin of Manchester City and Lee Mina of Kobe INAC (Hal Kaiser – Twitter).
The Korea Republic has room to experiment before Olympic qualifying, which will not take place for Asia until February 2020. In December, they will host the final round of the East Asian Football Federation competition, the EAFF E-1 Football Championship (Wikipedia), where they will play against Japan, China, and Hong Kong.
The following table lists Korea Republic’s travel roster for these friendlies. Players are sorted by position, then by name. All information except “Age” is from the KFA website (source), which regularly publishes detailed rosters with player photos for their WNT.
The ages are as of the date of the first friendly (October 3rd). The original heights, in centimeter, are provided along with calculated conversions to feet and inches, using normal rounding rules (round down if less than 0.5, round up if 0.5 or higher). The names of some Korea WK League teams have been shortened and/or abbreviated due to space limitations.
Table 1: Detailed Roster – Korea Republic WNT – October 2019 Friendlies
PLAYER P. D.O.B. AGE HEIGHT CLUB KANG Gaae GK 12/10/1990 28.81 172cm (5'8") Gumi Sportstoto WFC KIM Minjeong GK 09/12/1996 23.06 175cm (5'9") Incheon Hyundai Steel MIN Yukyeong GK 06/09/1995 24.32 176cm (5'9") Hwacheon KSPO EO Heejin DF 03/21/1991 28.54 167cm (5'6") Gumi Sportstoto WFC HA Eunhye DF 11/27/1995 23.85 166cm (5'5") Gumi Sportstoto WFC HONG Hyeji DF 08/25/1996 23.10 174cm (5'9") Changnyeong WFC KIM Hyeri DF 06/25/1990 29.27 165cm (5'5") Incheon Hyundai Steel KIM Hyeyeong DF 02/26/1995 24.60 171cm (5'7") Gyeongju KHNP WFC KIM Jinhui DF 10/07/1998 20.99 167cm (5'6") Changnyeong WFC LEE Hyokyeong DF 02/12/1997 22.64 166cm (5'5") Albirex Niigata (JPN) LIM Seonjoo DF 11/27/1990 28.85 168cm (5'6") Incheon Hyundai Steel CHO Sohyun MF 06/24/1988 31.27 167cm (5'6") West Ham United (ENG) JANG Chang MF 06/21/1996 23.28 158cm (5'2") Seoul WFC JANG Seulgi MF 05/31/1994 25.34 160cm (5'3") Incheon Hyundai Steel KANG Chaerim MF 03/23/1998 21.53 163cm (5'4") Incheon Hyundai Steel KIM Soeun MF 09/20/1998 21.03 160cm (5'3") Gumi Sportstoto WFC LEE Seeun MF 02/27/1989 30.60 165cm (5'5") Incheon Hyundai Steel LEE Sodam MF 10/12/1994 24.97 163cm (5'4") Incheon Hyundai Steel LEE Youngju MF 04/22/1992 27.45 163cm (5'4") Incheon Hyundai Steel MOON Mira MF 02/28/1992 27.59 165cm (5'5") Suwon UDC WFC PARK Yeeun MF 10/17/1996 22.96 164cm (5'5") Gyeongju KHNP WFC JI Soyun FW 02/21/1991 28.61 161cm (5'3") Chelsea FC (ENG) SON Hwayeon FW 03/15/1997 22.55 168cm (5'6") Changnyeong WFC YEO Minji FW 04/27/1993 26.43 163cm (5'4") Suwon UDC WFC
Career statistics are not readily available for the entire Korea WNT. However, FIFA’s WWC micro-site does have up-to-date caps and goals for those players who did participate in the most recent WWC.*
* At the conclusion of the WWC, a final squad list with updated career cap and goal statistics for each player was published in PDF form. As Korea has not yet played any matches since the WWC, those numbers are currently accurate.
Minutes played at the 2019 WWC and 2015 WWC are also included. In 2019, Korea finished last in their group, so they only played three matches. In the previous WWC, Korea made the round of sixteen, for a total of four matches. The two notable players who are unavailable due to injury, Lee Geummin and Lee Mina, are included at the bottom of the table for reference.
Additionally, age and height are reproduced from the above table for convenience.
Table 2: Korea Republic WNT Roster – Available Career Stats
Career Stats|WWC Minutes PLAYER P. AGE HEIGHT Caps Goals | 2019 2015 KANG Gaae GK 28.81 172cm (5'8") 13 0 | 0 KIM Minjeong GK 23.06 175cm (5'9") 6 0 | 270 KIM Hyeri DF 29.27 165cm (5'5") 83 1 | 180 220 KIM Hyeyeong DF 24.60 171cm (5'7") | 0 LIM Seonjoo DF 28.85 168cm (5'6") 76 5 | 0 6 CHO Sohyun MF 31.27 167cm (5'6") 124 20 | 270 360 KANG Chaerim MF 21.53 163cm (5'4") 4 0 | 180 LEE Sodam MF 24.97 163cm (5'4") 51 5 | 14 43 LEE Youngju MF 27.45 163cm (5'4") 30 2 | 69 MOON Mira MF 27.59 165cm (5'5") 25 11 | 116 JI Soyun FW 28.61 161cm (5'3") 119 54 | 270 270 SON Hwayeon FW 22.55 168cm (5'6") 20 7 | 0 YEO Minji FW 26.43 163cm (5'4") 38 13 | 128 ------------------------------------------------------------------- LEE Geummin FW 25.49 169cm (5'7") 54 16 | 270 103 LEE Mina MF 27.90 158cm (5'2") 60 14 | 101
Notables:
- One-third of the roster consists of players who could be categorized as U-23 players, as eight are born in 1996 or later.
- The youngest player Kim Soeun, just turned 21 in mid-September.
- The oldest player is midfielder Cho Sohyun, at age 31, who has over 120 caps for Korea. Cho played every minute for Korea in both the 2019 and 2015 Women’s World Cups.
- Forward Ji Soyun is another player with over 100 caps. She also has over fifty goals for her country.
- The second-youngest player, Kang Chaerim, was Korea’s youngest player at this year’s WWC, where she started two matches and was a substitute in the other match, for a total of 180 minutes. Prior to this, Kang had just one cap, which was earned against Iceland last spring.
- According to Hal Kaiser (Twitter), midfielder Lee Seeun’s last appearance for Korea was in 2011.
- Five of the players are uncapped: “Kim So-eun, Park Ye-eun, Kim Jin-hui, Lee Hyo-kyeong, Min Yuk-yeong” (Hal Kaiser – Twitter)
