Seongnam Got It All

Seongnam Ilwha caught two birds with one stone. It won the championship of the regular season for two years in a row, and won all the pro soccer championships for this year. Yesterday, Seongnam beat up Pohang Steelers 4-1 with the goals made by Irine, Shasha and Kim Sung-sik in an away game that took place in the Pohang Soccer stadium. It was part of the Samsung PAVV league, which, in turn, constitutes the K league, 2002.

Winning the game, Seongnam recorded 14 wins (winning point 49), and succeeded in distancing itself from Woolsan Hyundai and grabbing the regular season championship for the second time after last year. It has recorded the 5th win in total, including its three consecutive wins in 1993, 1994 and 1995. In addition, Seongnam won the three pro soccer championships of the 2002 Super Cup, the 2002 Adidas Cup and the regular K league.

At 18`, Kim Dae-ui shot the ball in the left corner of the box, which was punched out by the goalkeeper, Kim Byung-ji. But, dashing in, Irine did not miss the chance and kicked the ball into the net. With the beginning of the latter half, three goals were made in just three moments starting with Shasha`s goal at 50`.

In the meanwhile, Woolsan won the home game against Busan Icons 4-2, supported by 4 goals of Yoo Sang-chul. To win the championship, Woolsan wished Seongnam would not win the game, while it had to win. Contrary to its expectation, Seongnam won the game and Woolsan failed, thereby, to win the championship. But, Woolsan made its best record of a 8-winning game streak, ranking itself 2nd. On the other hand, Yoo, one of the World Cup star players who joined the team last month, has scored 9 in 8 games, taking the third place in the race for the most scorer.

The title of the most scorer went to Edmilson, a Brazilian player with Chonbook Hyundai Motors, with his 14 goals, followed by Woo Sung-yong (13 goals, Busan). Both of Lee Chun-soo (Woolsan) and Kim Dae-ui (Seongnam) recorded 9 assists each. But Lee won the title since he had less chances of playing.

Jong-Koo Yang yjongk@donga.com