The 2002 FIFA World Cup is remembered as being a breakthrough moment for Korea, who defeated heavyweights Italy and Spain en route to the semifinals, and for cementing football as one of Korea’s most played and followed team sports. A round of 16 game between Ireland and Spain brought tens of thousands of Irish football fans to Suwon, Gyeonggi, and some would return to Korea as expats in an English-teacher boom. Expats brought with them their beloved sport, Gaelic football, opening their first club in 2002 — so goes the Gaelic-in-Korea lore, according to multiple long-time members of the Seoul Gaels, Korea’s oldest Gaelic football team.

Now, the club holds twice-weekly practices around southern Seoul, one on a weekday morning and another on a weekend, and is gearing up for the North Asian Gaelic Games, set to be held in Jeju in May.Kim Na-na, who grew up in Jeju, stumbled into Gaelic about a decade ago. She had wanted to play football, the Premier League kind — she’s a longtime Manchester United fan — but said she struggled to find a women’s club.o, when she saw a flier for Gaelic football practice in Seoul, open to women and players of all skill levels, at a Moroccan restaurant in Haebangchon, she decided to turn up, alone.“It was kind of scary because I’m not really extrovert person and then my English wasn’t perfect,” Kim said. “I remember there was only one or two Koreans there and then mainly Irish people and some Americans.”Ten years later, Kim is a fixture at the Seoul Gaels and regularly travels with the women’s team to compete at international tournaments in Asia and Ireland.“They really welcomed me,” Kim, now 37, said. “I had no expectation for myself, but everyone 토토사이트 really encouraged me.”

Over one month into the 2024 K League 1 season, Gangwon FC forward Lee Sang-heon is the leading scorer with seven goals in six games, outshining strong competitors like 2023 top scorer Joo Min-kyu of Ulsan HD. Twelve months ago he was playing in the fourth division.Lee, 26, has scored in five of the past six games, contributing to Gangwon’s solid run in the league so far.  The team, which struggled throughout last season and barely avoided relegation, sit in fifth-place on the 12-team table with two wins, three draws and one loss as of Thursday. Gangwon are also the second most prolific team in the league with 11 goals — one goal behind Ulsan — thanks largely to Lee’s personal contribution, which is a stark contrast to last season when the team finished the league as the least prolific team with only 30 goals in 38 matches.  But what type of player is Lee and how has he managed to score so many goals?  Comfortable as an attacking midfielder, winger or striker, Lee is able to dribble his way around most defenders, a skill he has put to work for both the U-17 and U-20 national teams.
 
He has played as a striker in Gangwon manager Yoon Jong-hwan’s 4-4-2 formation this season, under which his finishing skills have been more visible. His second goal against Daegu FC on April 3 displayed exactly that strength — he calmly stroked the ball into the net with a chip shot over goalkeeper Oh Seung-hoon inside the penalty area.   Lee is also able to capitalize on space created by fellow striker Yago Cariello, who tends to pull the defense out of position. The goal Lee scored against Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors on April 7 was an example of that, with Lee left unmarked inside the penalty box while Cariello pushed up the other side of the area.   Lee’s stats so far this season have been the best of his career. Lee started his pro career with Ulsan, where he made his debut in 2017 and failed to establish himself as a regular pick, prompting him to move to then-K League 1 team Jeonnam Dragons on loan for the 2018 season.  He returned to Ulsan in 2019 and played for the club for another two seasons, struggling to break into the first team or get any time on the field. Lee joined Gangwon this season from K League 2 side Busan IPark. He moved to Busan in 2021 but his career was a mixed bag. In the 2022 season he scored seven goals and picked up three assists in 31 games, but spent the 2023 슬롯게이밍 season playing for the club’s reserve team in the fourth-tier K4.
 

An Byeong-hun was hanging on to dear life and anything that he could, including his cap, on another wind-swept day at the Masters Tournament on Friday. A battling one-over 73 in the second round meant he also found himself hanging onto the co-leaders’ coattails, with the coveted green jacket firmly in his sights.The 32-year-old produced two wonderful birdies late in his round at Augusta National to stay in the title fight at the year’s first major and will enter the weekend five shots back of Scottie Scheffler (72), Max Homa (71) and Bryson Dechambeau (73), who lead on six-under. “I thought yesterday was hard until I played it today, and it felt harder,” said An, who stands at one-under with six others. “I think the wind was a little stronger today. My hat wasn’t staying on my head for a couple of the holes.”Another tricky day saw winds blowing from between 24 to 32kph, with gusts of up to 56kph. Only eight players returned under par scores, while eight others shot 80 or worst, including reigning FedExCup champion Viktor Hovland who carded an 81 to be amongst the high-profile names to miss the halfway cut set at six-over.It got so hard that An, who is making his fifth Masters start and his first since 2020, felt he could have easily made bogeys in each of his back nine holes, especially when he had three in a row from the ninth. A combination of measured shots and some lucky bounces saw him make pivotal birdies on the par-5 13th hole and par-3 16th hole, where he miraculously chipped in from 33 yards off an awkward lie.“The back nine got very tricky. I got very lucky on a few shots, lucky bounces here and there, and then I don’t know how I shot even par on the back. That’s pretty impressive,” said An, whose best Masters finish was T33 in 2017.
  
“It’s not a joy at all. It’s not fun playing in these conditions. It’s definitely a battle out there. It’s a grind. There’s no easy holes. I could have made eight, nine bogeys in a row on the back nine, not because I was playing poorly but just the conditions. Somehow I scrambled well to shoot even par on the back.”An is still seeking a first PGA Tour victory, let alone a major win where only two Asian male golfers, Y.E. Yang (2009 PGA Championship) and Hideki Matsuyama (2021 Masters Tournament), have achieved the feat. He knows he needs to have instill morel trust into his golf swing, although conditions are forecasted to be a touch better over the weekend.“You try to make the best swing you can. I wasn’t able to do it today. I hit some poor shots out there all because the wind got into my head a little bit before I hit it,” said An, who has three top-10s this season and currently ranks seventh on the FedExCup points list.“Just have to hit a shot and accept every outcome that you get out of this wind and move on to the next hole because it’s such a difficult golf course to scramble around. I felt like I did that pretty good today.”Matsuyama  (74) and An’s compatriots, Tom Kim (78) and Kim Si-woo (76), made the 36-hole cut right on the number while Masters debutant Ryo Hisatsune (78) and Im Sung-jae of Korea (74) failed to advance into the weekend.Tiger Woods, meanwhile, rewrote more Masters history by breaking a tie with Gary Player and Fred Couples when he extended his streak of consecutive made cuts at Augusta National to 24 after carding a 72 to sit on one-over, just seven back of the leaders.The 82-time PGA Tour winner and five-time Masters champion is not prepared to only think of making cuts in whatever limited appearances that he makes these days following spells with various injuries and surgeries. “I’m here,” he said. “I have 카지노사이트킹 a chance to win the golf tournament.”

Tottenham Hotspur suffered a huge 4-0 loss to Newcastle United on Saturday, slipping down to fifth place on the Premier League table in their biggest defeat of the season. Tottenham struggled with counter attacks in the match at St. James Park in Newcastle, England, conceding goals to repeat mistakes. Captain Son Heung-min committed the first offense, giving away the ball inside Newcastle’s penalty area, which led to a counter attack that Alexandar Isak took advantage of in the 30th minute.   The Spurs defense also cost them another goal two minutes later, with full-back Pedro Porro mistiming a pass toward the penalty box and allowing Anthony Gordon to snatch the ball and make it 2-0.Spurs conceded yet another goal in the 51st minute in nearly the same pattern as the first goal. Son gave away the ball inside the Newcastle territory, leading to a counter attack that allowed Isak to find the back of the net again.  
 
Son came off in the 57th minute after a tepid performance before Spurs conceded goal No. 4 to Fabian Schar in the 87th minute from a corner.  “We just didn’t really get to any levels that would allow us to sort of get a grip on the game,” Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou said after the match. The 4-0 loss was the biggest defeat Spurs suffered in all competitions in the 2023-24 season. The defeat pushed the London side down to fifth on the Premier League table. They are tied on points with Aston Villa at 60, but Villa edge out the London side by one goal on goal difference.Reclaiming the fourth place would be crucial for Spurs, as the top four sides in the Premier League earn berths in the next season’s Champions League.  Six league fixtures remain for Tottenham. The club will have a two-week break before they play the next match against local rivals Arsenal on April 28. Arsenal sit in second place with 71 points — two points behind 온라인카지노 defending champions Manchester City having played one game fewer.  

FC Seoul manager Kim Gi-dong told reporters before a fixture against the Pohang Steelers on Saturday — which the capital side lost 4-2 — that Lingard underwent surgery on his knee a day before and he will need about a month to recover before returning to the pitch.   Lingard exhibited pain on his knee during training in March, forcing him to miss the past four league matches.  The former Manchester United midfielder made a surprising move to FC Seoul in February ahead of the 2024 season, but he has yet to display his best form.  In three league games he played as a substitute, he recorded zero goals and assists with an unimpressive performance. His performance against Jeju United on March 16 drew harsh criticism from Kim. The manager said the following: “Fame doesn’t win football games. If it did, I would have brought in a famous retired player.”  
 
Although Lingard and Kim have seemed to squash their beef, with the English midfielder saying during training last month that the situation was “part and parcel of football,” Kim has still said Lingard should take a leading role in the team.  If Lingard can recreate the results of his glory days — during which he displayed pace and made tidy crosses that saw him record assists — he could diversify FC Seoul’s attack that has proved to be solid so far this season.  The capital side has scored 10 goals in seven matches, during which they recorded two wins, three draws and three losses to sit in sixth place on the 12-team table as of press time Sunday.   The remainder of the season will see whether Lingard can make enough contributions for the capital side to move up the table in the K League title race.  The last time FC Seoul won the league was in 2016 — the last time the club lifted any kind of silverware from any 스포츠토토존 tournament.