Hong Kong vs South Korea
South Korea are off to a brisk start in the 2025 EAFF E-1 Football Championship. The Taeguk Warriors started their campaign with a 3-0 victory over China last Monday and will aim for their second straight win when they host Hong Kong at Yongin Citizen Sports Park this Friday evening.
Hong Kong have gone through a gauntlet to be one of the four teams remaining in this tournament alongside South Korea, Japan, and China. Ashley Westwood’s side won against Mongolia and Chinese Taipei to take the top spot in Group B before dispatching Group A topnotchers Guam with a 5-0 scoreline last December. However, the EAFF E-1 Football Championship 2025 odds don’t expect much from them in the final round.
They are fresh from a humiliating 6-1 loss against Japan yesterday, and what better way to bounce back than recording an upset win against South Korea?
Will this be another routine victory for South Korea, or will Hong Kong achieve the unthinkable? Continue reading below for the SBOTOP preview of this contest.
Talking Points
Hong Kong are major underdogs
Hong Kong will be eager to bounce back against South Korea following their 6-1 loss to Japan. Before this, Ashley Westwood’s men were unbeaten in their last seven matches across all competitions, including a goalless draw against Singapore and a 1-0 win over India in the ongoing 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers third round.
A 5-0 blitz in the first half blew the game wide open for Japan’s “C team”, as Ryo Germain scored four goals in just 22 minutes in his debut with the Samurai Blue. Germain scored goals in a variety of ways, first with a left-footed volley in the fourth minute, a diving header in the 10th minute, another left-footed finish in the 22nd minute, and a right-footed tap-in during the 26th minute. Sandwiched in between those goals was a long-range screamer from Sho Inagaki (20th minute), and Sota Nakamura put the final nail in the coffin with his header from a corner kick situation during stoppage time.
Hong Kong’s backline was so abysmal that, at one point, they built a defencive block of nearly six players, but they couldn’t withstand Japan’s onslaught at all. Their offence was also bad because they only had their first shot of the match during the 26th minute.
Fortunately for Hong Kong, Matt Orr pulled one back for them before the hour mark with a nifty header from a corner kick to prevent a shutout loss. The 28-year-old forward is surely on top of South Korea’s scouting report, as he is their main attacking protagonist with 10 goals in 38 caps.
South Korea’s B team have enough firepower
Head coach Hong Myung-Bo didn’t deploy his best squad in this tournament because he didn’t call up his European contingent. Despite this, they still created enough EAFF E-1 Football Championship 2025 highlights in their 3-0 win over China.
Lee Dong-Gyeong opened the scoring in the eighth minute by converting Kim Moon-Hwan’s pass with his left foot. The Taeguk Warriors stretched their lead to 2-0, as Joo Min-Kyu headed the ball into the back of the net in the 21st minute. The third goal was made from a set piece, as Kim Ju-Sung scored off a rebound from Park Seung-Wook’s miss inside the box.
History
The EAFF E-1 Football Championship is a men’s international football competition for member nations of the East Asian Football Federation (EAFF). Before the EAFF was founded in 2002, the Dynasty Cup was held between the top four East Asian countries and was regarded as the East Asian Championship. The purpose of the competition was to improve the quality of football in East Asia.
China, South Korea, and Japan have always automatically qualified for the competition. On the other hand, other participants like Chinese Taipei, North Korea, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Hong Kong, Mongolia, and Macau must go through the qualifying round. At one point, Australia, a non-member of the EAFF, was invited to take part in the 2013 tournament.
South Korea won the inaugural edition of this tournament in 2003 and remain the winningest team with five titles (2003, 2008, 2015, 2017, and 2019), two runners-up (2010 and 2022), one third-place finish (2013), and one fourth-place finish (2005). Moreover, Japan (2013 and 2022) and China (2005 and 2010) have two titles each, and no other team has won the whole thing.
As for Hong Kong, their best finish in this tournament was P4 in 2003, 2010, 2019, and 2022. North Korea also had a couple of P3 outings in 2005 and 2015.
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