Seoul Gwanak-gu’s Wolsan Players FC has won its inaugural K5 League Championship with a penalty shootout victory.
In the final of the 2023 K5 Championship against Daejeon Yuseong-gu West FC at Chungju Sports Complex on the 12th, the 텍사스홀덤 Wolsan Players were held scoreless through regular time (45 minutes each) and extra time (15 minutes each), and won the championship trophy 5-4 in penalty kicks.
This is the first championship win for the Wolsan Players, which was founded in 2008 as a soccer team for tenants of the Wolsan building in the Gasan Digital Complex in Geumcheon-gu, Seoul. The K5 Championship was launched in 2019, with SMC Engineering (2019, 2020), Suwon City FC (2021), and Jemix FC (2022) having previously won the title.
The winner of the K5 Championship will receive a cash prize of 5 million won. In addition, they will be eligible to participate in the Chiang Mai Dream Cup 2023 in Chiang Mai, Thailand this December. The tournament will become a full-fledged competition next year and will be held as a pilot this year. There will be three teams from Thailand, Laos, and South Korea. The championship runner-up will receive 3 million won, and the two third-place teams will receive 2 million won each.
Wolsan Players and Western FC battled back-and-forth for 90 minutes of regular time, but no goals were scored. In overtime, both teams tried their best to find a goal despite the physical pressure, but in the end, neither team was able to shake the net.
In the end, it came down to the penalty shootout, where Wallsan Players goalkeeper Kim Yeon-tae, who also saved a penalty in the Championship semifinals, led his team to the final. In the penalty shootout, which began with Western FC taking the lead, Kim saved a kick from the opponent’s second kicker, Lee Ji-hwan, with the score tied at 1-1.
The K5,6,7 League, which was launched in 2019 and is in its fifth year, is a regional year-round league for club soccer teams. This year, the K5 League was divided into 13 leagues with a total of 84 teams participating. The K6 League had 192 teams in 31 leagues and the K7 League had 1,223 teams in 187 leagues. In K5, the best teams from each region compete in a championship at the end of the year to determine the overall winner, while K6 and K7 are regional leagues only.
The K5, 6, and 7 leagues also have a promotion system. Between K5 and K6, 13 teams are promoted and relegated based on league performance, while K6 and K7 have 31 teams swapping places at the end of the year.