2018 K League 2

KEB Hana Bank
K League 2
Season	2018
Champions	Asan Mugunghwa ; (1st title)
Promoted	Seongnam FC
Matches played	180
Goals scored	426 (2.37 per match)
Best Player	Na Sang-ho
Top goalscorer	Na Sang-ho ; (16 goals)
Biggest home win	Gwangju 5–0 Suwon FC ; (21 April 2018)
Biggest away win	Seoul E 0–5 Busan ; (11 August 2018)
Highest scoring	Busan 4–3 Anyang ; (29 July 2018)
Highest attendance	6,532 ; Busan 2–2 Gwangju ; (4 November 2018)
Lowest attendance	312 ; Seoul E 1–0 Anyang ; (14 April 2018)
Average attendance	1,672
	← 2017 2019 →

The 2018 K League 2 was the sixth season of the K League 2, the second-highest division in the South Korean football league system.^[2]

Asan Mugunghwa once again grabbed an opportunity for promotion by winning its second K League 2 title (officially first title after Ansan era), but its owner Korean Police Agency did not recruit new players who could meet clubs' requisite for maintenance before the end of the season. Asan Mugunghwa, which was in the process of being dissolved, was finally disqualified from promoting.^[3]

Runners-up Seongnam FC directly qualified for the K League 1 instead of Asan Mugunghwa, and the third, fourth, and fifth-placed team advanced to the promotion playoffs.

Teams

Team changes

Relegated from K League Classic

Gwangju FC

Promoted to K League 1

Gyeongnam FC

Stadiums

Ansan Greeners	FC Anyang	Asan Mugunghwa	Bucheon FC 1995	Busan IPark
Ansan Wa~ Stadium	Anyang Stadium	Yi Sun-sin Stadium	Bucheon Stadium	Busan Gudeok Stadium
Capacity: 35,000	Capacity: 17,143	Capacity: 19,283	Capacity: 34,545	Capacity: 12,349

Daejeon Citizen	Gwangju FC	Seongnam FC	Seoul E-Land	Suwon FC
Daejeon World Cup Stadium	Gwangju World Cup Stadium	Tancheon Stadium	Seoul Olympic Stadium	Suwon Sports Complex
Capacity: 40,535	Capacity: 40,245	Capacity: 16,146	Capacity: 69,950	Capacity: 11,808

Personnel and sponsoring

Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Team	Managers	Kit manufacturer	Main sponsor
Ansan Greeners	Lee Heung-sil	Kelme	Ansan Government
FC Anyang	Ko Jeong-woon	Zaicro	Anyang Government
Asan Mugunghwa	Park Dong-hyuk	Puma	Asan Government
Bucheon FC 1995	Jeong Gab-seok	Astore	Bucheon Government
Busan IPark	Choi Yun-kyum	Adidas	Hyundai Development Company
Daejeon Citizen	Ko Jong-soo	Astore	Daejeon Government
Gwangju FC	Park Jin-sub	Joma	Gwangju Government
Seongnam FC	Nam Ki-il	Umbro	Seongnam Government
Seoul E-Land	In Chang-soo	New Balance	E-Land
Suwon FC	Cho Duck-je	Hummel	Suwon Government

Foreign players

Restricting the number of foreign players strictly to four per team, including a slot for a player from AFC countries. A team could use four foreign players on the field each game.

As of 24 July 2018.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Asian Player
Ansan Greeners	Fidel	Seku Conneh	Raúl Tarragona
FC Anyang	Wesley Alex	Marcos Antônio
Bucheon FC 1995	Cristovam	Nilson Júnior	Willian Popp	Nan Song
Busan IPark	Rômulo	Arsenio Valpoort	Sherjill MacDonald
Daejeon Citizen	Aurelian Chițu	Filip Hlohovský	Sanzhar Tursunov	Shohrux Gadoyev
Gwangju FC	Gil	Felipe Silva	Róbson Duarte	Minori Sato Wang Chien-ming^[a]
Seongnam FC	Éder Lima	Olivier Bonnes
Seoul E-Land	Diego Bielkiewicz	Ignacio Herrera	Ivan Herceg
Suwon FC	Alex Lima	Alex Bruno	Fernando Viana	Adrian Leijer

^ Wang Chien-ming represented Chinese Taipei at international level, but he was considered Korean in the K League 2.

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Asan Mugunghwa^[a] (C)	36	21	9	6	54	27	+27	72
2	Seongnam FC (P)	36	18	11	7	49	36	+13	65	Promotion to the K League 1
3	Busan IPark	36	14	14	8	53	35	+18	56	Qualification for the promotion playoffs semi-final
4	Daejeon Citizen	36	15	8	13	47	44	+3	53	Qualification for the promotion playoffs first round
5	Gwangju FC	36	11	15	10	51	41	+10	48	Qualification for the promotion playoffs first round
6	FC Anyang	36	12	8	16	44	50	−6	44
7	Suwon FC	36	13	3	20	29	46	−17	42
8	Bucheon FC 1995	36	11	6	19	37	50	−13	39
9	Ansan Greeners	36	10	9	17	32	45	−13	39
10	Seoul E-Land	36	10	7	19	30	52	−22	37

Source: K League
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goals scored; 3) Goal difference; 4) Wins; 5) Head-to-head points.
(C) Champions; (P) Promoted
Notes:

^ Asan Mugunghwa was disqualified from promoting to the K League 1 due to lack of players who could meet clubs' requisite for maintenance. Therefore, runner-up Seongnam FC was directly promoted, and 5th-placed team Gwangju FC qualified for the promotion playoffs.^[3]

Positions by matchday

Leaders
Qualification for the promotion playoffs

Round 1–18

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18
Team ╲ Round
Asan Mugunghwa	2	2	3	4	5	3	2	4	4	3	3	3	3	2	2	1	2	1
Seongnam FC	4	6	4	5	2	4	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	1	2
Busan IPark	4	5	5	2	3	5	5	5	6	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	3
Bucheon FC 1995	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	3	3	3	4
Gwangju FC	6	7	8	8	8	8	8	6	5	6	7	7	7	5	6	7	5	5
Ansan Greeners	9	3	2	3	4	2	4	3	3	5	5	5	5	6	5	5	6	6
Suwon FC	2	4	7	7	7	7	6	7	9	9	8	9	9	9	9	9	8	7
Daejeon Citizen	8	10	6	6	6	6	7	8	7	7	6	6	6	7	7	6	7	8
FC Anyang	6	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	9
Seoul E-Land	9	8	8	9	9	9	9	9	8	8	9	8	8	8	8	8	9	10

Source: K League

Round 19–36

Team ╲ Round	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36
Team ╲ Round
Asan Mugunghwa	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Seongnam FC	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	1	1	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
Busan IPark	4	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	3	4	4	4	3	3	3	3	3
Daejeon Citizen	8	8	9	8	7	7	6	5	4	4	3	3	3	4	4	4	4	4
Gwangju FC	5	5	4	4	4	4	5	4	5	5	5	5	5	5	7	5	5	5
FC Anyang	10	9	10	9	9	9	9	8	8	9	8	8	6	6	5	6	6	6
Suwon FC	7	7	6	6	6	5	4	6	6	6	6	6	8	7	6	7	7	7
Bucheon FC 1995	3	4	5	5	5	6	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	8	9	8	8	8
Ansan Greeners	6	6	7	10	10	10	10	10	10	8	9	9	9	9	8	9	9	9
Seoul E-Land	9	10	8	7	8	8	8	9	9	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10

Source: K League

Results

Matches 1–18

Home \ Away	ANS	ANY	ASM	BUC	BIP	DJC	GWJ	SEN	SEL	SUW
Ansan Greeners	—	2–1	0–2	3–1	1–3	3–2	2–0	2–1	0–2	1–0
FC Anyang	1–0	—	0–3	0–3	2–2	1–1	3–2	2–3	2–0	0–1
Asan Mugunghwa	1–0	1–1	—	4–2	1–1	0–1	1–2	4–2	3–0	2–0
Bucheon FC 1995	1–1	1–2	0–1	—	1–0	0–2	1–0	1–2	0–3	4–1
Busan IPark	1–1	3–0	1–0	1–2	—	3–3	0–1	1–1	2–0	1–1
Daejeon Citizen	1–1	3–2	1–2	1–2	0–1	—	1–2	1–2	1–0	0–2
Gwangju FC	0–0	0–0	2–2	1–2	1–1	0–1	—	1–3	3–0	5–0
Seongnam FC	0–0	1–1	1–0	2–1	0–1	4–2	0–0	—	1–1	2–1
Seoul E-Land	2–1	1–0	0–0	2–4	2–2	0–2	0–0	1–1	—	0–1
Suwon FC	1–0	1–0	0–2	0–1	1–0	1–2	0–1	1–4	1–0	—

Source: K League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 19–36

Home \ Away	ANS	ANY	ASM	BUC	BIP	DJC	GWJ	SEN	SEL	SUW
Ansan Greeners	—	0–2	0–1	3–1	0–1	1–1	3–2	0–1	0–0	0–1
FC Anyang	3–2	—	3–0	3–1	1–2	0–1	0–0	1–1	1–0	3–1
Asan Mugunghwa	2–0	2–1	—	0–0	0–0	2–2	1–0	1–0	3–1	2–1
Bucheon FC 1995	1–2	0–1	0–1	—	0–0	1–1	0–1	0–1	0–2	2–0
Busan IPark	0–0	4–3	1–2	1–1	—	1–2	2–2	2–0	3–1	0–1
Daejeon Citizen	1–0	2–2	2–1	3–0	0–1	—	1–1	0–1	1–0	1–0
Gwangju FC	4–0	2–1	1–1	1–1	3–3	1–2	—	3–1	2–2	0–2
Seongnam FC	1–1	1–0	1–1	2–1	1–0	2–0	2–2	—	1–2	0–0
Seoul E-Land	2–0	0–1	0–4	0–1	0–5	1–0	1–4	1–2	—	1–0
Suwon FC	1–2	3–0	0–1	2–0	0–3	3–2	1–1	0–1	0–2	—

Source: K League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Promotion playoffs

Bracket

First round			Semi-final			Final

			3	Busan IPark	3

			4	Daejeon Citizen	0
4	Daejeon Citizen	1

5	Gwangju FC	0
						Busan IPark	1	1	2

						FC Seoul	3	1	4

First round

28 November 2018

19:00 KST

Daejeon Citizen	1–0	Gwangju FC
Chițu 68'	Report

Daejeon World Cup Stadium, Daejeon

Attendance: 3,121

Referee: Kim Hee-gon

Semi-final

1 December 2018

16:00 KST

Busan IPark	3–0	Daejeon Citizen
Rômulo 6' Noh Haeng-seok 42' Shin Young-jun 90+3'	Report

Busan Gudeok Stadium, Busan

Attendance: 8,132

Referee: Lee Dong-jun

Final

The promotion-relegation playoffs were held between the winners of the 2018 K League 2 playoffs and the 11th-placed club of the 2018 K League 1. The winners on aggregate score after both matches earned entry into the 2019 K League 1.

6 December 2018

19:00 KST

Busan IPark	1–3	FC Seoul
Rômulo 24'	Report	Cho Young-wook 58' Go Yo-han 78' Jung Hyun-cheol 89'

Busan Gudeok Stadium, Busan

Attendance: 10,127

Referee: Kim Woo-sung

9 December 2018

14:10 KST

FC Seoul	1–1	Busan IPark
Park Chu-young 90+3'	Report	Kim Jin-kyu 32'

Seoul World Cup Stadium, Seoul

Attendance: 8,554

Referee: Kim Dae-yong

FC Seoul won 4–2 on aggregate and therefore both clubs remain in their respective leagues.

Player statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Na Sang-ho	Gwangju FC	16
2	Wesley Alex	FC Anyang	15
3	Aurelian Chițu	Daejeon Citizen	11
4	Jung Sung-min	Seongnam FC	10
4	Willian Popp	Bucheon FC 1995	10
6	Ko Kyung-min	Busan IPark	9
6	Rômulo	Busan IPark	9
8	Shohrux Gadoyev	Daejeon Citizen	8
9	7 players		7

Top assist providers

Rank	Player	Club	Assists
1	Rômulo	Busan IPark	9
2	Park Soo-il	Daejeon Citizen	8
2	Chang Hyuk-jin	Ansan Greeners	8
4	Moon Sang-yun	Seongnam FC	7
5	Jo Seong-joon	Asan Mugunghwa	6
6	Lee Euddeum	Asan Mugunghwa	6
	Cho Chan-ho	Seoul E-Land
	Lee Jae-kwon	Busan IPark
	Lee Myung-joo	Asan Mugunghwa
	Moon Ki-han	Bucheon FC 1995
	Kim Dong-hyun	Gwangju FC

Attendance

Attendants who entered with free ticket were not counted.

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Busan IPark	44,572	6,532	1,008	2,476	+3.0%^†
2	Seongnam FC	43,208	4,167	1,128	2,400	−14.3%^†
3	Suwon FC	33,792	3,060	815	1,877	−11.0%^†
4	Ansan Greeners	32,775	5,532	645	1,820	−32.6%^†
5	Asan Mugunghwa	31,594	4,039	844	1,755	−10.3%^†
6	Daejeon Citizen	29,617	4,142	418	1,645	−26.5%^†
7	Gwangju FC	27,393	5,439	464	1,522	−51.8%^†
8	FC Anyang	27,090	6,503	405	1,505	−54.9%^†
9	Bucheon FC 1995	18,464	1,655	618	1,026	−50.2%^†
10	Seoul E-Land	12,410	1,349	312	689	−57.2%^†
	League total	300,895	6,532	312	1,672	−28.2%^†

Source: K League
Notes:
^† Team played previous season in K League Classic.

References

^ ^a ^b 나상호, K리그2 가장 빛난 별…MVP·득점왕·베스트11 3관왕(종합) (in Korean). Yonhap News Agency. 3 December 2018. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
^ "South Korea 2018". RSSSF. 23 June 2021. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
^ ^a ^b [공식 발표] 아산, 승격 자격 박탈…성남 1부 승격, 28일 대전-광주 준플레이오프. SPOTV News. 19 November 2018.

External links

Official website (in Korean)
2018 K League 2 at RSSSF

[4] Wang Chien-ming represented Chinese Taipei at international level, but he was considered Korean in the K League 2.

[table_note_ASP0.99341667676038-5] Asan Mugunghwa was disqualified from promoting to the K League 1 due to lack of players who could meet clubs' requisite for maintenance. Therefore, runner-up Seongnam FC was directly promoted, and 5th-placed team Gwangju FC qualified for the promotion playoffs.^[3]

[Awards-1] 나상호, K리그2 가장 빛난 별…MVP·득점왕·베스트11 3관왕(종합) (in Korean). Yonhap News Agency. 3 December 2018. Retrieved 30 March 2023.

[2] "South Korea 2018". RSSSF. 23 June 2021. Retrieved 23 May 2023.

[Asan2-3] [공식 발표] 아산, 승격 자격 박탈…성남 1부 승격, 28일 대전-광주 준플레이오프. SPOTV News. 19 November 2018.

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