2015 K League Challenge

The 2015 K League Challenge was the third season of the K League 2, the second-highest division in the South Korean football league system. Champions and winners of promotion playoffs could be promoted to the K League Classic.^[1]

Hyundai Oilbank
K League Challenge

Season	2015
Champions	Sangju Sangmu (2nd title)
Promoted	Sangju Sangmu Suwon FC
Matches	220
Goals	593 (2.7 per match)
Best Player	Johnathan
Top goalscorer	Johnathan (26 goals)
Biggest home win	Gangwon 4–0 Bucheon (4 April 2015) Seoul E 4-0 Chungju (16 May 2015) Sangju 4–0 Chungju (13 June 2015) Daegu 5–1 Sangju (23 September 2015)
Biggest away win	Goyang 0–5 Sangju (13 May 2015)
Highest scoring	Gangwon 4–4 Seoul E (22 November 2015)
Highest attendance	20,157 Daegu 2–1 Gangwon (29 March 2015)
Lowest attendance	249 Goyang 1–0 Gangwon (10 June 2015)
Average attendance	1,606
← 2014 2016 →

Teams

Goyang Hi FC

Suwon FC

Bucheon FC

FC Anyang

Ansan Police

Seoul E-Land

Gyeongnam FC

Sangju Sangmu

Daegu FC

Gangwon FC

Chungju Hummel

Locations of the 2015 K League Challenge clubs

Team changes

Relegated from K League Classic

• Gyeongnam FC
• Sangju Sangmu

Promoted to K League Classic

• Daejeon Citizen
• Gwangju FC

Newly joined

• Seoul E-Land

Stadiums

Ansan Police	FC Anyang	Bucheon FC 1995
Ansan Wa~ Stadium	Anyang Stadium	Bucheon Stadium
Capacity: 35,000	Capacity: 17,143	Capacity: 34,545
Chungju Hummel	Daegu FC	Gangwon FC
Chungju Stadium	Daegu Stadium	Gangneung Stadium
Capacity: 15,000	Capacity: 68,014	Capacity: 22,333
Goyang Hi FC	Gyeongnam FC	Sangju Sangmu
Goyang Stadium	Changwon Football Center	Sangju Stadium
Capacity: 41,311	Capacity: 15,500	Capacity: 15,042
Seoul E-Land	Suwon FC
Seoul Olympic Stadium	Suwon Stadium
Capacity: 69,950	Capacity: 24,670

Personnel and sponsoring

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

Team	Managers	Kit manufacturer	Main sponsor
Ansan Police	Lee Heung-sil	Zaicro
FC Anyang	Lee Woo-hyung	Zaicro	KB Kookmin Bank
Bucheon FC 1995	Choi Jin-han	Astore	Bucheon Government
Chungju Hummel	Kim Jong-pil	Hummel	Chungju Government
Daegu FC	Lee Young-jin	Kelme	Daegu Government
Gyeongnam FC	Park Sung-hwa	Hummel
Gangwon FC	Choi Yun-kyum	Hummel
Goyang Hi FC	Lee Young-moo	New Balance
Sangju Sangmu	Park Hang-seo	Atemi
Seoul E-Land	Martin Rennie	New Balance	E-Land
Suwon FC	Cho Duck-je	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.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Asian Player
FC Anyang	Austin Berry
Bucheon FC 1995	Rodrigo Paraná	Almir	Lukian
Chungju Hummel	Marcinho
Daegu FC	Léo Jaime	Johnathan	Serginho	Éder Lima
Gyeongnam FC	Fauver	Miloš Stojanović	Imed Louati
Gangwon FC	Jonatas Belusso	Henan	Gil
Goyang Hi FC
Seoul E-Land	Carlyle Mitchell	Ryan Johnson	Tarabai	Robert Cullen
Suwon FC	Japa	Vladan Adžić	Sisi

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Sangju Sangmu (C, P)	40	20	7	13	77	57	+20	67	Promotion to the K League Classic
2	Daegu FC	40	18	13	9	67	47	+20	67	Qualification for the promotion playoffs semi-final
3	Suwon FC (O, P)	40	18	11	11	64	54	+10	65	Qualification for the promotion playoffs first round
4	Seoul E-Land	40	16	13	11	69	58	+11	61
5	Bucheon FC 1995	40	15	10	15	43	45	−2	55
6	FC Anyang	40	13	15	12	53	52	+1	54
7	Gangwon FC	40	13	12	15	64	56	+8	51
8	Goyang Hi FC	40	13	10	17	46	68	−22	49
9	Gyeongnam FC	40	10	13	17	30	43	−13	43
10	Ansan Police	40	9	15	16	31	48	−17	42
11	Chungju Hummel	40	10	11	19	49	65	−16	41

Source: K League
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored.
(C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (P) Promoted

Positions by matchday

  Leaders
  Qualification for the promotion playoffs

Round 1–22

Team ╲ Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22
Sangju Sangmu	2	4	1	1	2	3	2	3	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Daegu FC	9	6	6	6	4	1	1	1	1	2	3	4	4	4	4	3	3	3	2	2	2	2
Seoul E-Land	7	9	10	10	10	10	7	5	6	4	4	3	2	3	2	2	2	2	3	3	3	3
Suwon FC	11	8	3	3	1	2	4	2	3	3	2	2	3	2	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
Goyang Hi FC	4	7	2	2	3	4	3	4	4	5	6	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
Bucheon FC 1995	3	5	9	8	5	5	6	8	8	8	9	7	8	9	9	8	8	6	6	8	7	6
Ansan Police	5	2	5	5	7	7	8	6	5	6	5	6	6	6	6	7	6	7	8	7	6	7
Chungju Hummel	8	10	11	11	11	11	11	10	10	11	10	10	7	7	8	9	9	8	9	10	8	8
Gyeongnam FC	5	2	7	7	8	8	10	11	11	10	7	8	10	8	7	6	7	9	7	6	9	9
Gangwon FC	10	11	8	9	9	9	9	9	9	9	11	11	9	11	10	10	10	10	10	9	10	10
FC Anyang	1	1	4	4	6	6	5	7	7	7	8	9	11	10	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11

Source: K League

Round 23–44

Team ╲ Round	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	41	42	43	44
Sangju Sangmu	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2	2	3	2	2	2	2	1	1
Daegu FC	2	3	3	3	3	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2	2
Suwon FC	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	3	3	4	3	3	3	4	3	4	4	3	3	3
Seoul E-Land	3	2	2	2	2	3	3	3	3	4	4	3	4	4	4	2	4	3	3	4	4	4
Bucheon FC 1995	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5	5
FC Anyang	11	11	9	9	7	8	8	7	9	8	8	8	8	8	8	9	7	7	6	6	6	6
Gangwon FC	9	9	8	8	9	9	7	9	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	8	9	8	8	8	7	7
Goyang Hi FC	6	6	6	7	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	6	7	7	8	8
Gyeongnam FC	10	10	11	11	11	11	11	10	10	10	10	11	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	9	9
Ansan Police	8	8	7	6	8	7	9	8	8	9	9	9	9	9	9	7	8	9	9	9	10	10
Chungju Hummel	7	7	10	10	10	10	10	11	11	11	11	10	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11	11

Source: K League

Results

Matches 1–20

Home \ Away	ASM	ANY	BUC	CJH	DGU	GWN	GHI	GNM	SJS	SEL	SUW
Ansan Police	—	0–0	0–0	1–0	1–1	0–2	1–1	0–1	0–3	2–2	1–0
FC Anyang	0–1	—	1–1	2–1	1–1	2–2	1–2	0–0	1–5	0–1	3–0
Bucheon FC 1995	0–1	1–1	—	0–0	2–1	3–2	1–2	1–2	3–1	0–3	2–2
Chungju Hummel	3–2	1–1	0–1	—	1–1	3–1	0–1	0–0	3–3	1–2	0–2
Daegu FC	3–0	2–2	2–0	2–1	—	2–1	1–2	1–0	2–2	1–0	1–4
Gangwon FC	1–1	0–0	4–0	0–1	1–2	—	0–1	0–1	1–2	3–1	3–1
Goyang Hi FC	1–2	2–1	1–0	2–0	0–2	1–0	—	0–1	0–5	2–4	2–3
Gyeongnam FC	0–0	1–1	1–2	0–1	0–1	0–0	0–1	—	1–3	2–3	1–2
Sangju Sangmu	2–0	3–2	1–0	4–0	0–2	3–1	0–0	4–2	—	3–2	0–0
Seoul E-Land	2–2	1–1	0–0	4–0	1–1	2–4	2–0	1–1	2–3	—	2–0
Suwon FC	2–2	0–0	3–2	2–3	2–2	2–1	2–0	0–1	1–1	1–5	—

Source: K League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Matches 21–40

Home \ Away	ASM	ANY	BUC	CJH	DGU	GWN	GHI	GNM	SJS	SEL	SUW
Ansan Police	—	1–2	0–2	0–1	0–0	1–0	2–2	2–2	2–2	0–1	0–1
FC Anyang	2–1	—	0–0	1–0	0–2	1–2	3–0	2–0	2–1	3–4	3–2
Bucheon FC 1995	0–1	0–1	—	2–0	0–1	4–2	1–0	1–0	2–1	3–1	0–0
Chungju Hummel	0–0	2–2	2–0	—	1–1	0–2	1–2	0–2	4–1	1–3	1–3
Daegu FC	1–0	2–4	1–1	1–1	—	0–1	2–3	3–0	5–1	3–3	1–2
Gangwon FC	2–0	4–1	1–1	3–3	3–2	—	2–2	1–1	0–2	4–4	1–1
Goyang Hi FC	0–1	1–0	2–3	2–5	3–3	2–4	—	2–1	0–4	2–1	1–1
Gyeongnam FC	0–1	2–2	1–0	1–0	1–3	0–0	0–0	—	1–0	0–0	0–0
Sangju Sangmu	3–0	1–2	2–1	1–2	2–1	0–3	4–1	1–0	—	1–1	2–5
Seoul E-Land	1–1	1–0	1–0	4–2	0–2	0–0	1–1	0–1	1–0	—	1–4
Suwon FC	2–1	1–2	1–2	2–1	0–2	3–2	0–0	3–1	1–0	3–1	—

Source: K League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Promotion playoffs

When the first round and semi-final match were finished as draws, their winners were decided on the regular season rankings without extra time and the penalty shoot-out.

Bracket

	First round					Semi-final					Final
						2	Daegu FC	1
						3	Suwon FC	2
	3	Suwon FC	3
	4	Seoul E-Land	3
											Suwon FC		1	2	3
											Busan IPark		0	0	0

First round

25 November 2015

19:00 KST

Suwon FC	3–3	Seoul E-Land
Japa 20' Lim Seong-taek 45+2' Kim Young-kwang 55' (o.g.)	Report	Tarabai 33' (pen.) Yoon Sung-yeul 43' Jeon Min-gwang 52'

Suwon Sports Complex, Suwon

Attendance: 1,240

Referee: Ko Hyung-jin

Semi-final

28 November 2015

14:00 KST

Daegu FC	1–2	Suwon FC
No Byung-jun 40'	Report	Bae Shin-young 19' Japa 79'

Daegu Stadium, Daegu

Attendance: 1,824

Referee: Song Min-seok

Final

The promotion-relegation playoffs were held between the winners of the 2015 K League Challenge playoffs and the 11th-placed club of the 2015 K League Classic. The winners on aggregate score after both matches earned entry into the 2016 K League Classic.

2 December 2015

19:00 KST

Suwon FC	1–0	Busan IPark
Jung Min-woo 85'	Report

Suwon Sports Complex, Suwon

Attendance: 2,347

Referee: Lee Dong-jun

---

5 December 2015

16:00 KST

Busan IPark	0–2	Suwon FC
	Report	Lim Seong-taek 80' Japa 90+4'

Busan Gudeok Stadium, Busan

Attendance: 6,135

Referee: Woo Sang-il

Suwon FC won 3–0 on aggregate and were promoted to the K League Classic, while Busan IPark were relegated to the K League Challenge.

Player statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Johnathan	Daegu FC	26
2	Joo Min-kyu	Seoul E-Land	23
3	Japa	Suwon FC	19
	Cho Seok-jae	Chungju Hummel
5	Tarabai	Seoul E-Land	17
6	Ko Kyung-min	FC Anyang	16
7	Jonatas Belusso	Gangwon FC	15
8	Lim Sang-hyub	Sangju Sangmu	12
	Kim You-sung	Goyang Hi FC
10	Choi Seung-in	Gangwon FC	11
	Rodrigo Paraná	Bucheon FC 1995

Top assist providers

Rank	Player	Club	Assists
1	Kim Jae-sung	Seoul E-Land	11
2	Lim Chang-gyoon	Gyeongnam FC	9
	Seo Bo-min	Gangwon FC
	Moon Ki-han	Daegu FC
5	Kim Jong-woo	Suwon FC	8
6	Jang Baek-gyu	Daegu FC	7
	Japa	Suwon FC
	Choi Jin-soo	FC Anyang
	Joo Min-kyu	Seoul E-Land
10	Lee Jung-hyup	Sangju Sangmu	6
	Han Sang-woon	Sangju Sangmu
	Kim Young-keun	Seoul E-Land
	Kwon Yong-hyun	Suwon FC
	Lee Hak-min	Bucheon FC 1995
	Jin Chang-soo	Goyang Hi FC
	Johnathan	Daegu FC

Attendance

Attendants who entered with free ticket were not counted.

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	Daegu FC	60,569	20,157	504	3,028	+213.5%†
2	Gyeongnam FC	37,835	5,214	311	1,892	−58.3%†
3	Seoul E-Land	36,510	4,342	680	1,826	n/a†
4	FC Anyang	34,003	10,147	583	1,700	+8.1%†
5	Bucheon FC 1995	33,943	12,332	511	1,697	+57.7%†
6	Ansan Police	33,298	10,094	304	1,665	+178.4%†
7	Gangwon FC	27,137	7,051	438	1,357	+34.6%†
8	Suwon FC	27,106	5,688	420	1,355	+36.9%†
9	Sangju Sangmu	24,692	4,244	512	1,235	−51.7%†
10	Chungju Hummel	24,553	3,925	514	1,228	+58.7%†
11	Goyang Hi FC	13,764	3,083	249	688	+17.8%†
	League total	353,410	20,157	249	1,606	+32.6%†

Source: K League
Notes:
^† Team played previous season in K League Classic.

Awards

The 2015 K League Awards was held on 1 December 2015.^[2]

Main awards

• Most Valuable Player: Johnathan (Daegu FC)
• Top goalscorer: Johnathan (Daegu FC)
• Top assist provider: Kim Jae-sung (Seoul E-Land)
• Manager of the Year: Cho Duck-je (Suwon FC)

Best XI

Position	Player	Club
Goalkeeper	Jo Hyeon-woo	Daegu FC
Defenders	Park Jin-po	Sangju Sangmu
	Shin Hyung-min	Ansan Police
	Kang Min-soo	Sangju Sangmu
	Lee Yong	Sangju Sangmu
Midfielders	Ko Kyung-min	FC Anyang
	Lee Seung-gi	Sangju Sangmu
	Cho Won-hee	Seoul E-Land
	Kim Jae-sung	Seoul E-Land
Forwards	Johnathan	Daegu FC
	Joo Min-kyu	Seoul E-Land

Player of the Round

Round Player Club 1 Lee Jung-hyup Sangju Sangmu 2 Léo Jaime Daegu FC 3 Choi Seung-in Gangwon FC 4 Yeo Sung-hye Sangju Sangmu 5 Almir Bucheon FC 1995 6 No Byung-jun Daegu FC 7 Kim Jae-sung Seoul E-Land 8 Johnathan Daegu FC 9 Park Gi-dong Sangju Sangmu 10 Japa Suwon FC 11 Kim Young-keun Seoul E-Land 12 Joo Min-kyu Seoul E-Land 13 Joo Min-kyu Seoul E-Land 14 Lee Hyun-chang Chungju Hummel 15 Lim Sang-hyub Sangju Sangmu 16 Han Sang-woon Sangju Sangmu 17 Lee Jung-hyup Sangju Sangmu 18 Jeong Woo-jae Chungju Hummel 19 Johnathan Daegu FC 20 Henan Gangwon FC 21 Joo Min-kyu Seoul E-Land 22 Lim Sang-hyub Sangju Sangmu

Round Player Club 23 Cho Seok-jae Chungju Hummel 24 Kim Ryun-do Bucheon FC 1995 25 Seo Bo-min Gangwon FC 26 Kim Jae-woong Suwon FC 27 Kwon Young-hyun Suwon FC 28 Johnathan Daegu FC 29 Gil Gangwon FC 30 Han Sang-woon Sangju Sangmu 31 Jung Gi-woon Suwon FC 32 Johnathan Daegu FC 33 Choi Jin-soo FC Anyang 34 Johnathan Daegu FC 35 Johnathan Daegu FC 36 Tarabai Seoul E-Land 37 Vladan Adžić Suwon FC 38 Gong Min-hyun Bucheon FC 1995 39 Japa Suwon FC 40 Cho Dong-geon Sangju Sangmu 41 Gil Gangwon FC 42 Gil Gangwon FC 43 Henan Gangwon FC 44 Cho Seok-jae Chungju Hummel

Manager of the Month

Month	Manager	Club	Division
March	Nam Ki-il	Gwangju FC	K League Classic
April	Choi Kang-hee	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	K League Classic
May	Kim Hak-bum	Seongnam FC	K League Classic
June	Park Hang-seo	Sangju Sangmu	K League Challenge
July	Choi Kang-hee	Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors	K League Classic
August	Kim Hak-bum	Seongnam FC	K League Classic
September	Hwang Sun-hong	Pohang Steelers	K League Classic
October	Lee Young-jin	Daegu FC	K League Challenge
November	Cho Duck-je	Suwon FC	K League Challenge

See also

• 2015 in South Korean football
• 2015 K League Classic
• 2015 Korean FA Cup