2018 K League 2

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

The 2018 K League 2 was the sixth season of the K League 2, the second tier South Korean professional league for association football clubs since its establishment in 2013, and the first one with its current name, the K League 2. The top-ranked team and the winner of the promotion play-offs among three clubs ranked between second and fourth were promoted to the K League 1 after the regular season ends.

Teams[]

Gyeongnam FC, the first-placed team of the 2017 K League Challenge was promoted to the 2018 K League 1. Gwangju FC was relegated from the top tier. A total of ten teams contested the league.

Team	City	Manager	Home venue	Capacity
Ansan Greeners FC	Ansan	Lee Heung-sil	Ansan Wa~ Stadium	35,000
FC Anyang	Anyang	Ko Jeong-woon	Anyang Stadium	17,143
Asan Mugunghwa	Asan	Park Dong-hyuk	Yi Sun-sin Stadium	19,283
Bucheon FC 1995	Bucheon		Bucheon Stadium	34,545
Busan IPark	Busan	Choi Yun-kyum	Busan Gudeok Stadium	12,349
Daejeon Citizen	Daejeon	Ko Jong-soo	Daejeon World Cup Stadium	40,535
Gwangju FC	Gwangju	Park Jin-sub	Gwangju World Cup Stadium	40,245
Seongnam FC	Seongnam	Nam Ki-il	Tancheon Stadium	16,146
Seoul E-Land FC	Seoul	In Chang-soo	Seoul Olympic Stadium	69,950
Suwon FC	Suwon	Cho Duck-je	Suwon Sports Complex	11,808

Stadiums[]

Primary venues used in the K League Challenge included:

Ansan Greeners FC	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 FC	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 kits[]

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

Team	Kit Manufacturer¹	Main sponsor¹
Ansan Greeners	Kelme	Ansan Government
FC Anyang		Anyang Government
Asan Mugunghwa	Puma	Asan Government
Bucheon FC 1995		Bucheon Government
Busan IPark	Adidas	Hyundai Development Company
Daejeon Citizen		Daejeon Government
Gwangju FC	Joma
Seongnam FC	Umbro	Seongnam Government
Seoul E-Land	New Balance	E-Land
Suwon FC	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 FC	Fidel	Seku Conneh	Raúl Tarragona
FC Anyang	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-ming¹
Seongnam FC	Éder	Olivier Bonnes
Seoul E-Land FC	Diego Bielkiewicz	Ignacio Herrera	Ivan Herceg
Suwon FC	Alex	Alex Bruno	Fernando Viana	Adrian Leijer

^[1]

¹ Although Wang Chien-ming represents Chinese Taipei at international level, he is considered Korean for squad registration purposes.

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 2019 K League 1
3	Busan IPark	36	14	14	8	53	35	+18	56	Qualification to K League Challenge play-offs
4	Daejeon Citizen	36	15	8	13	47	44	+3	53
5	Gwangju FC	36	11	15	10	51	41	+10	48
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 FC	36	10	9	17	32	45	−13	39
10	Seoul E-Land FC	36	10	7	19	30	52	−22	37

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

^ Because Asan couldn't recruit new player until 19 November, the runner-up team was promoted to 2019 K League 1 directly and the 5th-placed team qualified to the K League Challenge play-offs. ^[2]^[3]

Positions by matchday[]

Leader & Promotion to the 2019 K League 1
Qualification to Relegation/promotion play-offs

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: kleague.com

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: kleague.com

^[4]

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

Updated to match(es) played on 15 August 2018. 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-Relegation Playoffs[]

Promotion and relegation playoffs were held between the 3rd to 5th clubs of 2018 K League 2 and the 11th club of 2018 K League 1. If scores are tied after regular time at the Semi-Playoff and Playoffstage , the higher placed team advances to the next phase. The same conditions do not apply to the final Promotion-Relegation Playoffs.

Semi-playoff			Playoff			Promotion-relegation Playoffs

						K1 (11)	FC Seoul	3	1	4
			K2 (3)	Busan IPark	3	K2 (3)	Busan IPark	1	1	2
K2 (4)	Daejeon Citizen	1	K2 (4)	Daejeon Citizen	0
K2 (5)	Gwangju FC	0

Semi-Playoff[]

28 November 2018

19:00 KST

Daejeon Citizen	1–0	Gwangju FC
Aurelian Chițu 68'	Report

Daejeon World Cup Stadium, Daejeon

Attendance: 3,121

Referee: Kim Hee-gon

Playoff[]

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

Promotion-Relegation Playoffs[]

First leg[]

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

Second leg[]

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

Season statistics[]

Top scorers[]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Na Sang-ho	Gwangju FC	16
2	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 assists[]

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
	Kim Dong-hyun	Gwangju FC

Attendance[]

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%^†

Updated to games played on 23 July 2019
Source: K League
Notes:
Attendants who entered with free ticket are not counted.
^† † Team played previous season in K League Classic.

References[]

^ http://kleague.com/ko/content/%ED%81%B4%EB%9F%BD^{[dead link]}
^ "아산 승격여부, 19일로 연기… 경찰청 번복 없으면 차순위 성남 승격 (종합)". news1. 5 November 2018.
^ "[공식 발표] 아산, 승격 자격 박탈…성남 1부 승격, 28일 대전-광주 준플레이오프". SPOTV News. 19 November 2018.
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2020-11-03. Retrieved 2018-04-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

External links[]

Official K League website (in Korean)

[table_note_ASP0.49975739442732-4] Because Asan couldn't recruit new player until 19 November, the runner-up team was promoted to 2019 K League 1 directly and the 5th-placed team qualified to the K League Challenge play-offs. ^[2]^[3]

[1] ttp://kleague.com/ko/content/%ED%81%B4%EB%9F%BD^{[dead link]}

[Asan-2] "아산 승격여부, 19일로 연기… 경찰청 번복 없으면 차순위 성남 승격 (종합)". news1. 5 November 2018.

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

[5] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2020-11-03. Retrieved 2018-04-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

[1]

[a]

[2]

[3]

[4]

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