The Busan i-Park U15 WFC (i-Park WFC), the only elite girls’ team affiliated with a professional organization, has taken a historic first step, but the barriers for existing players were high. The team, which was formed in July with a group of general students and hobbyists, started training four times a week for just three months and aimed to score a point in its first tournament, but even that was not easy. However, they will play again to score a point in the next tournament.

IPark WFC lost 0-7 to Ulsan Hyundai Cheongwoon on Saturday in Pohang, Gyeongbuk, in the third round of qualifying for the Korea Women’s Football League Autumn 2024. The tournament kicked off on March 3 and will run until March 11, and iPark WFC was assigned to Group 2, where they faced Jinju Women’s Middle School in Gyeongnam, Hummel WFC in Seoul, and 토토사이트 Hyundai Cheongwoon.

With Hyundai Cheongwoonjung finishing first and Jinju Women’s Middle School finishing second, it will be difficult for iPark WFC and Hummel WFC to advance to the main tournament with three losses.

iPark WFC lost 0-22 against Jinju Yeojoong in the first match of the qualifiers on March 3. After conceding 11 points in the first half, iPark WFC collapsed in the second half, conceding another 11 points.

After the crushing defeat in the first game, iPark WFC followed it up with a respectable 0-6 loss in the second game against Hummel WFC. The team did well in the first half, conceding only two goals, but conceded four goals in the second half to further tilt the game. In the third game against Hyundai Cheongwoonjung on the 6th, they conceded three goals in the first half and four in the second half, finishing 0-7.

While Hummel WFC and Hyundai Cheongwoon took it easy on the first-time teams, Jinju Women’s Football Club, who pushed hard against the underdog iPark WFC in their first match to top the qualifiers, eventually lost 0-5 to Hyundai Cheongwoon and finished second in the group.

“Hyundai Cheongwoonjung, who was in the same group as us, is the No. 1 team in the country and Jinju Yeojoong is the No. 2 team, and most of the players have been playing for more than five years, so we were overpowered before our players could even adapt to the pitch,” lamented i-Park WFC head coach Lee Nam-young. “In the next year or two, we will strengthen our training with the mindset of avenging this defeat,” he said. ‘The good thing is that after the first match, our players adapted and learned a lot, such as pressuring the opponent,’ he added.