Korean football club Incheon United sign Argentine forward

South Korean football club Incheon United said Thursday they've signed Argentine forward Enzo Damian Maidana.The K League Classic club said they've acquired Enzo from Bolivian side Petrolero de Yacuiba, without revealing the terms of the contract. Incheon said they hope the 29-year-old striker can boost their struggling offense.Incheon, currently 11th in the 12-team league, have scored only 20 goals in 23 matches so far, second worst behind cellar dwellers Gwangju FC. Following the departure of

SoccerJuly 27, 2017

Contrasting fates for baseball's bottom feeders in season's 2nd half

Two of the bottom feeders in South Korean baseball are headed in opposite directions with the second half of the season in full swing.The Samsung Lions and the Hanwha Eagles have traded places in the Korea Baseball Organization standings. The Lions (38-53-4 in wins-losses-ties) moved to the sole possession of eighth place in the 10-team league for the first time last Sunday, while the Eagles (36-55-1), mired in a seven-game losing streak, have slipped to ninth place.Make no mistake, these two cl

BaseballJuly 27, 2017

FC Seoul lead attendance in pro football

Reigning South Korean pro football champions FC Seoul tops attendance in the top-flight K League Classic, data showed Thursday.The K League, the operator of the nation's pro football leagues, said Seoul have drawn an average of 16,390 fans per match through the first 23 contests of the season, the most among the 12 clubs.Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors, currently the league leaders, were second with an average of 10,895 fans per match, followed by Pohang Steelers with 10,652 fans per game. They were the

SoccerJuly 27, 2017

Korean fencing enjoys best finish at world championships

South Korean fencing has wrapped up the annual world championships in Germany with its best finish ever.South Korea ranked third overall with a gold and two silver medals at the 2017 World Fencing Championships that concluded in Leipzig, Germany, on Wednesday (local time).The lone gold came from the men's sabre team competition, where South Korea defeated Hungary 45-22.It was South Korea's first world title, team or individual, since Won Yoo-young's gold in the men's individual sabre event at th

More SportsJuly 27, 2017

NBA star Stephen Curry arrives in Korea

Two-time National Basketball Association MVP Stephen Curry arrived in South Korea on Wednesday for his Asian corporate tour.Curry landed in a private jet at Seoul Gimpo Business Aviation Center with his younger brother Seth Curry of the Dallas Mavericks. The high-scoring guard for the Golden State Warriors will stay in Seoul until Friday for his Asian tour with athletics apparel brand Under Armour. He visited three Chinese cities -- Beijing, Chengdu and Hangzhou -- before coming to South Korea f

More SportsJuly 27, 2017

Japanese brothers to play for same Korean football club

A pair of Japanese footballing brothers will play for the same South Korean team for the first time in league history.Seoul E-Land in the second division K League Challenge said Wednesday they've acquired Tomoki Wada from Gwangju FC. Tomoki is the younger brother of Atsuki Wada, who is already playing with E-Land this season.E-Land said this is the first time in the K League history that two Japanese brothers are on the same club.Tomoki, 22, made his pro debut with Japanese club Vissel Kobe in 2

SoccerJuly 26, 2017

Korean midfielder returns home after UAE stint

South Korean midfielder Song Jin-hyung has rejoined his original club, FC Seoul, after a season in the United Arab Emirates.The K League Classic outfit said Wednesday they've reacquired the 29-year-old midfielder 10 years after he left the nation's capital.Song spent the last season with Al-Sharjah in the UAE. FC Seoul, the 2016 league champions, said Song will spend the next two months rehabbing an injury he sustained while playing there.Song was part of a stacked FC Seoul youth system in 2003

SoccerJuly 26, 2017

The sudden rise of Wyverns right fielder Han Dong-min

SK Wyverns right fielder Han Dong-min has come out of nowhere. Just over halfway into his fifth season in the Korean Baseball Organization, he has already posted career highs in every single offensive stat.One thing that has changed for Han is playing time. This season he has a starting role for the first time in his career. But playing time alone cannot account for his stark difference in performance. In the first 179 games of his career, Han collected 2.11 wins above replacement level, a cumul

BaseballJuly 26, 2017

Teams going in opposite directions in bunched up baseball standings

A little over a week into the second half of the season, five clubs find themselves bunched up in the middle of the Korea Baseball Organization standings.At the top, the Kia Tigers and the NC Dinos have put some distance between themselves and the rest. The Tigers are in first at 60-32 and are leading the Dinos by five.The Doosan Bears, two-time defending champs, are another five back of the Dinos in third place at 48-40-1 (wins-losses-ties).Then it gets interesting. Players of the Lotte Giants

BaseballJuly 26, 2017

Olympic trials in figure skating to get under way this week

The national Olympic trials in figure skating will get under way this week, kicking off a series of three competitions that will determine who will represent the host nation at next year's PyeongChang Winter Games.The Korea Skating Union will host the "Figure Skating Korea Challenge" at Mokdong Ice Rink in Seoul starting Thursday, the first leg of the Olympic trials.The KSU will hold another competition in December, and then the national championships in January will be the final event for Olymp

More SportsJuly 26, 2017

Pitching woes at bottom of Wyverns’ July skid

The SK Wyverns are starting to come undone. The team has dropped their past five games and is barely clinging onto the final playoff spot, leading the sixth place LG Twins by a single game.The biggest problem for SK of late has been the pitfall of the “big inning,” where an opponent scores five or more runs in their half of the inning.As of Monday, SK had played 18 games in July and conceded a big inning a staggering eight times.As might be expected, they lost six of the seven games where they g

BaseballJuly 26, 2017

Park Tae-hwan finishes eighth in 200m freestyle at swimming worlds

South Korean swimmer Park Tae-hwan has finished eighth in the men's 200m freestyle at the ongoing world championships.With a time of 1:47.11, Park came in last among eight finalists at the 2017 FINA World Aquatics Championships at Danube Arena in Budapest, Hungary, on Tuesday (local time).Park squeezed into the final by finishing eighth in Monday's semifinals, despite setting his season-best with 1:46.28. In the heats held earlier Monday, Park ended up 14th among 16 qualifiers for the semis.Park

More SportsJuly 26, 2017

Pro football's video review system being considered for 2nd division next season: official

The video review system in the nation's top professional football league has been so successful in its first year that it could be added to the second division in 2018, a senior league official said Tuesday.Cho Young-jeung, head of the referees committee at the K League, said club officials and referees alike in the top-flight K League Classic have all been effusive about the video assistant referee system, in which officials review decisions made by the head referee on the field with the benefi

SoccerJuly 25, 2017

Korean football prospect decides to join FC Barcelona B team training

South Korean football prospect Lee Seung-woo will join FC Barcelona B team's training this week, his agency here said Tuesday.Team Twelve said Lee will join preseason training of the Spanish giants' reserve squad in the second division. Lee earlier this month announced that he wouldn't participate in the training of the Catalan club's reserve squad until he hears an answer from Barcelona on his future status.Lee was previously included on Barcelona B's 35-man training squad for this summer, alon

SoccerJuly 25, 2017

Ex-KBO MVP clears waivers, ineligible for 2017

Former South Korean pro baseball MVP Kim Sang-hyun won't be able to compete in the top league this year after clearing waivers.The troubled veteran, charged with engaging in lewd conduct in public last summer, got a new lifeline extended by his former Korea Baseball Organization club, KT Wiz, two weeks ago. After the incident, the Wiz placed Kim on the restricted list, preventing him from playing anywhere in the KBO without their permission, and reinstated him on July 14 before placing him on wa

BaseballJuly 25, 2017

Ryu Hyun-jin throws 5 strong in return from injury

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin made his first start Monday night after being activated from the 10-day disabled list the day before. Ryu was placed on the disabled list on July 4 after suffering a left foot contusion in a game against the Los Angeles Angels. Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin delivering a pitch on June 29, 2017. (Yonhap)Ryu made his return start at home against the Minnesota Twins, throwing 79 pitches in five innings of work. He surrendered two runs on five hits

BaseballJuly 25, 2017

Swansea City's Ki Sung-yueng eager to have healthy season

INCHEON -- South Korean midfielder Ki Sung-yueng said Tuesday he is eager to have an injury-free season with his English Premier League club and earn good results with the national team.Ki, who is with Swansea City, said he will focus on rehabbing his right knee before the new EPL season kicks off next month. The 28-year-old went under the knife after South Korea's World Cup qualifier against Qatar last month. He removed inflammation in the knee and took a rest during his stay in his homeland."I

SoccerJuly 25, 2017

Brit Chris Froome wins 2017 Tour de France

Briton Chris Froome secured his fourth Tour de France victory on Sunday. The victory was Froome’s third consecutive victory, and made him only the fifth person ever to win the Tour de France four times.The victory was the most challenging of Froome’s general classification victories. It was his smallest margin of victory (54 seconds, over Rigoberto Uran), and marked the first time he had ceded control of the leader’s yellow jersey later than the eighth stage. He also did not capture a stage vict

More SportsJuly 25, 2017

Korea's two leading short track stars say PyeongChang 2018 pressure no problem

South Korea's two leading stars in women's short track speed skating said Tuesday that they are not concerned about the pressure of satisfying home fans at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.Shim Suk-hee and Choi Min-jeong have dominated the women's competition in recent years and they will be considered heavy favorites at the first Winter Olympics in South Korea next year. Shim, 20, won three medals at her Olympic debut in 2014, while Choi is a two-time world overall champion.Although they wi

More SportsJuly 25, 2017

Korea wins men's team sabre gold at world championships

South Korea's men's sabre fencing team has won its first ever gold at the world championships.The quartet of Gu Bon-gil, Kim Jung-hwan, Oh Sang-uk and Kim Jun-ho beat Hungary 45-22 at the International Fencing Federation World Championships in Leipzig, Germany, on Monday (local time) to win the gold medal for the first time.This is the first time that South Korea grabbed a gold medal at the worlds since Won Woo-young topped men's individual sabre in 2010. It is also the first team gold at the wo

More SportsJuly 25, 2017