North Korean club Naegohyang FC to vie for first Asian title in South Korea

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, May 21 (Yonhap) -- A North Korean women's football club will chase their first title at the top Asian tournament on South Korean soil on the weekend.

Naegohyang Women's FC of North Korea will face Tokyo Verdy Beleza of Japan in the final of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's Champions League at Suwon Stadium in Suwon, 30 kilometers south of Seoul, at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Now in its second season, the AFC Women's Champions League is the biggest women's club football competition in Asia. Both Naegohyang and Tokyo are competing in their first Women's Champions League.

Naegohyang rallied past South Korea's Suwon FC Women 2-1 in Wednesday's semifinals, on second-half goals by Choe Kum-ok and Kim Kyong-yong. Earlier in the day, Tokyo Verdy Beleza defeated Melbourne City FC, the 2025 runners-up, by 3-1, with Yuzuho Shiokoshi netting twice and Miharu Shinjo scoring the other.

The champions will take home US$1 million, while the runners-up will bag $500,000.

Tokyo defeated Naegohyang 4-0 in their Group C meeting in November last year, when Myanmar's Yangon served as the centralized venue. Shiokoshi and Shinjo had a goal apiece in that victory, with Moka Hiwatari grabbing a brace.

Shiokoshi, Hiwatari and Kim are tied for second place in goals at this year's tournament with three each.

Naegohyang head coach Ri Yu-il has repeatedly said this week that results from the group stage won't have any bearing on knockout matches, emphasizing that all four semifinalists were capable of winning the title.

While praising his squad for the come-from-behind win over Suwon FC Women, Ri also pointed out that his young team must address some issues, both offensively and defensively.

"We will try our best to play an even better match in the final," he said. "We are still a young team with little experience, and I hope we will use this victory as a stepping stone for the future."

Though Suwon Stadium is a neutral venue for both sides, Naegohyang players will likely have a partisan crowd behind them.

Their match against Suwon FC Women, the first between women's football clubs of the Koreas on South Korean soil, drew about 5,700 fans, many of whom came from South Korean civic groups and cheered for the North Korean side. Suwon FC Women's supporters were outnumbered and their cheers were often drowned out by chants of "Naegohyang."