Season Review · Part 4
Season Review, Part 4: Baek Ji-woong, Every Position but Goalkeeper
Four goals from a center back who was supposed to be a holding midfielder, two Round Best XI picks, an own goal at Suwon FC and an error his manager named in public, then the two passes that beat Daegu: what Baek Ji-woong has done well, where it goes wrong, and why the last six need him on the right of the defense.
Part 3 covered Min Sung-jun, the last line of the defense. Part 4 is the player who has stood in front of him in more places than anyone else in the squad, and who ended Round 27 as the player of the match against Daegu.
The season in one paragraph
Baek Ji-woong is 22, came to Seoul E-Land from Jeju International University in the summer of 2024, scored the playoff equalizer against Jeonnam that sent the club into the 2024 promotion playoff, and was one of three finalists for the K League 2 Young Player award in 2025 after 34 matches, 1 goal and 4 assists spread across midfield, the wings and the second striker role. In January, at the Bangkok camp, he said he did not want to hear that he still looked like a rookie, set himself 5 goals and 5 assists, and said the position where he showed his value best was defensive midfield. Kim Do-gyun named him the player who most needed to grow this year and said he would fix him there. It did not last. By May Baek was telling reporters that his “identity this season is defender, center back,” and through Round 27 he has played 25 of Seoul’s 26 league matches, 22 of them as a starter, 2,179 minutes, with 4 goals, his first assist of the season against Daegu, and two Round Best XI selections. He has also scored an own goal at Suwon FC, made the error at home to Paju that his manager called “absurd” in the press room, and gone into the run-in one yellow card from a suspension. He is the most improved player in the squad, and the one whose mistakes have cost the most points.
By the numbers
| 2025 (33 league matches) | 2026 through Round 27 | |
|---|---|---|
| Appearances, starts | 33 | 25, 22 |
| Minutes | 2,179 | |
| Goals | 1 | 4 |
| Assists | 4 | 1 |
| Main position | Midfield, wing, second striker | Center back (17 matches), central midfield (5), right back (2) |
| Shots, on target, headed | 10, 5, 5 | |
| Accurate passes | 1,214, at 88.7 percent | |
| Tackles | 38 | |
| Interceptions | 28 | |
| Aerial duels won | 67, at 71 percent | |
| All duels won | 123, at 65 percent | |
| Clearances | 67 | |
| Fouls committed | 31 | |
| Yellow cards | 4 (one from a suspension) | |
| Round Best XI | 2 (Rounds 5 and 8) |
Advanced numbers are FotMob’s. The four goals: a stoppage-time finish at Daegu, a header from a corner at Paju, a stoppage-time header from a corner against Yongin, and a volley from a parried corner at Busan. Three of the four came from dead balls, and two of them rescued or sealed results.
What he has done well
He scores the goals nobody plans for. A center back with 4 goals in 25 matches is doing something unusual. At Daegu in March he finished the scoring in the tenth minute of stoppage time to turn a nervy 2-1 into 3-1. At Paju in April, with Seoul a goal down, Osmar headed a long corner back across and Baek headed the equalizer, the start of a 3-1 comeback. Against Yongin in May, Seoul were losing 2-1 in the ninth minute of stoppage time when Euller headed a corner on and Baek headed it in. At Busan in August, a goal down to the league leaders, Carius aimed a corner straight at goal, Gu Sang-min could only parry it, and Baek, unmarked, volleyed the rebound in. Seoul won 2-1. A fifth, at Ansan in April, was ruled out for offside. Kim Do-gyun’s plan before Daegu listed him with Osmar, Park Jae-yong and Caio as the players he wanted scoring from set pieces.
He plays wherever the manager needs a body, and says so without complaint. FotMob logs him at center back in 17 matches, central midfield in 5, right back in 2, and once each at holding midfield and left wing. His own summary, to Sports Seoul in July, was that counting his school years he has played “every position except goalkeeper,” and that “I get more satisfaction from playing than from the position.” Against Gimpo in May, when the captain Kim Oh-kyu came off at halftime, the 21-year-old moved into the middle of the back three and ran it. “Communication was not good after Oh-kyu came off,” he said afterward, “but I have played a lot of matches for this club, so I thought I had to do it.”
The defending has caught up with the versatility. The numbers above put him near the top of the division’s center backs in FotMob’s comparison group: 67 aerial duels won at 71 percent, 38 tackles, 28 interceptions, 123 duels won at 65 percent. At Seongnam in May he started at center back in a back four rather than his usual back three, played the full match, led the buildup, and MyDaily wrote that he had earned his call to the under-23 camp for the Asian Games. At Hwaseong in August, against Plana and a side that had beaten Seoul at Mokdong in April, Seoul kept a clean sheet with Baek beside Osmar. At Cheongju in September, two weeks after the worst night of his season, he stopped García at the top of the box in the first half and Seoul kept a clean sheet away from home.
He can pass, and it showed when it mattered most. He completes 88.7 percent of his passes, 1,214 of them, which is a midfielder’s number at center back. Against Daegu, with Park Chang-hwan suspended, Kim Do-gyun said he had given Park’s role to Baek, “a different type of player, but he has height and goals.” Baek played on the right of a back three with license to step out, and both goals came from it. On 29 minutes he put a first-time low cross across the six-yard box that Cho Jun-hyun converted at the second attempt. On 51 minutes Euller found him moving inside, and his first-time pass sent Park Jae-yong through for the winner. Only the second counted as an assist, his first of the season, because Han Tae-hee saved Cho’s first attempt. FotMob made him player of the match with an 8.2, the same rating it gave him for the Busan equalizer.
He took public criticism and answered it on the pitch. After Paju, Kim Do-gyun named him in the press conference and said he wanted him to understand “how much one mistake affects the result and the mood of the team.” Baek started the next match on the bench. Six days after that he was back at center back at Cheongju, Seoul won 2-0, and the site’s digest called him immaculate. Four weeks after the error, he was the reason Seoul beat Daegu.
Where the same mistakes keep showing up
The errors are expensive. Two moments have cost Seoul points in the second half of the season. At Suwon FC in July, in the third minute of first-half stoppage time, a scramble in the box ended with the ball deflecting off him into his own net. Seoul came back to lead 2-1 and then conceded a stoppage-time penalty, so the own goal was the difference between a win and a draw at a direct promotion rival. At home to Paju in August, 19 seconds into the second half, he lost control under pressure in Seoul’s own third and Lee Je-ho scored the rebound after Borja Baston’s shot was parried. Seoul had 21 shots and drew 1-1. “Because of Baek Ji-woong’s fatal mistake we conceded first,” Kim Do-gyun said. Four points from those two matches would have Seoul second on their own.
Marking at set pieces. He is dangerous attacking corners and less reliable defending them. After the Yongin draw in May, in which Seoul conceded from a corner and then from a stoppage-time header, the manager said “losing the man you are marking at set pieces, after the last match as well, clearly needs to improve.” Baek, who had scored the equalizer, did not argue: “We conceded two and drew, so it is disappointing. I still have a lot to improve.” Seoul have conceded from a corner in each of the last three matches in which they conceded at all. That is a team problem, but the tallest defenders own a share of it.
Midfield under pressure. The position he wanted in January is the one where he has struggled. In the opener at Suwon Samsung he was overrun in central midfield once Suwon changed their shape. Against Busan in March he came off after 62 minutes of a 3-2 defeat, and against Hwaseong in April after 61 of a 2-1 defeat. The Paju error came in the one match since the summer in which he was moved into holding midfield. He said it himself in July: in midfield “you are under pressure wherever you stand,” while at center back “I don’t have to think about what is behind me.”
Fouls and cards. Thirty-one fouls is a lot for a center back, twice Kim Oh-kyu’s total, and he is on four yellow cards. A fifth means a one-match suspension.
His strengths, and what they mean for the last six
Height at both ends against sides who will sit deep. Gimpo, Gimhae, Yongin, Jeonnam, Chungnam Asan and Gyeongnam will defend their box and look for set pieces of their own. Baek is 188 centimeters, wins seven of every ten aerial duels, and has scored three set-piece goals. Yongin beat Seoul’s marking twice from dead balls in May. Chungnam Asan scored twice with headers in the 3-0 in May. Both are still to play, and the defender who wins the first header at both ends matters most in exactly those matches.
The right side of a back three. The Daegu match showed what he adds when he is allowed to step out of the back line with the ball. Park Chang-hwan returns from suspension for Gimpo on October 9, which gives Kim Do-gyun a real choice: Baek at center back beside Osmar in a back four, where he kept clean sheets at Hwaseong and Cheongju, or Baek on the right of a back three, where he made both goals against Daegu.
Cover for the whole back line. Osmar is 38, Kim Oh-kyu has started three of the last nine, and Caio arrived in August. A defender who can play right back, either center back spot and holding midfield lets the manager change the rest without breaking the shape.
Managing the card. One more yellow and he misses a match, and a late one would carry the ban into the playoffs. With Seoul level on points with Suwon FC and behind on goals scored, losing him for a match would cost more than any foul he could make.
The verdict at Round 27
He came into the year as a midfielder who needed a position. He has one now. He is Seoul’s most improved player, a center back with four goals and a midfielder’s passing, and the player his manager trusted to replace a suspended vice-captain in the six-point match with Daegu. He has also made the two most costly individual errors of Seoul’s second round robin. Both of those things will be true in December, and which one people remember depends on the next six matches.
Grade so far: B plus. The plus is for four goals, the move to center back and the Daegu performance. The absence of an A is for Suwon FC and Paju, the four points they cost, and the card count he carries into October.
Match log
| Round | Opponent | Result | Role | Goals | Assists | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Suwon Samsung (A) | L 1-2 | Start, 90 | Central midfield, overrun after Suwon’s changes | ||
| 2 | Gyeongnam (H) | W 1-0 | Sub, late | |||
| 3 | Busan (H) | L 2-3 | Start, off 62 | Central midfield with Cho Jun-hyun | ||
| 4 | Cheonan (A) | D 0-0 | Sub, late | Came on with Seoul down to ten men | ||
| 5 | Daegu (A) | W 3-1 | Start, 90 | 1 | Clincher in the tenth minute of stoppage time; Round Best XI | |
| 6 | Suwon FC (H) | W 3-0 | Start, off about 32 | Head knock, concussion substitution; cleared to play | ||
| 7 | Paju (A) | W 3-1 | Start, 90 | 1 | Header from Osmar’s knockdown at a corner | |
| 8 | Ansan (A) | W 2-0 | Start, 90 | Goal ruled out for offside; booked; Round Best XI | ||
| 9 | Hwaseong (H) | L 1-2 | Start, off 61 | |||
| 10 | Gimpo (H) | W 2-1 | Start, 90 | Ran the back three after Kim Oh-kyu came off at halftime | ||
| 11 | Chungnam Asan (A) | L 0-3 | Start, 90 | |||
| 12 | Yongin (H) | D 2-2 | Start, 90 | 1 | Header in the ninth minute of stoppage time from Euller’s knockdown; booked | |
| 13 | Seongnam (H) | W 3-1 | Start, 90 | Center back in a back four; earned an under-23 camp call | ||
| 14 | Jeonnam (A) | W 1-0 | Start, 90 | Clean sheet | ||
| 15 | Chungbuk Cheongju (H) | L 1-2 | Did not play | Rotated out before the break | ||
| 16 | Gimhae (A) | W 3-1 | Start, 90 | Center back in the new back four | ||
| 18 | Suwon FC (A) | D 2-2 | Start, 90 | Own goal in first-half stoppage time | ||
| 19 | Cheonan (H) | W 4-3 | Start, 90 | Booked | ||
| 20 | Busan (A) | W 2-1 | Start, off 88 | 1 | Volleyed equalizer after a parried Carius corner | |
| 21 | Hwaseong (A) | D 0-0 | Start, 90 | Clean sheet | ||
| 22 | Ansan (H) | W 3-1 | Start, 90 | |||
| 23 | Paju (H) | D 1-1 | Start, 90 | Holding midfield; control error led to Paju’s goal; booked | ||
| 24 | Seongnam (A) | D 1-1 | Sub, 57 | Replaced Kim Oh-kyu | ||
| 25 | Chungbuk Cheongju (A) | W 2-0 | Start, 90 | Back at center back; clean sheet | ||
| 26 | Suwon Samsung (H) | L 0-1 | Start, off 78 | Went off injured | ||
| 27 | Daegu (H) | W 2-1 | Start, off 86 | 1 | Cross for Cho Jun-hyun’s goal, pass for Park Jae-yong’s winner; FotMob player of the match |
Statistics from the K League record and the club site, with match detail from the season’s digests and Korean match reports. Two corrections to earlier digests: his equalizer at Busan was a right-footed volley after the goalkeeper parried Carius’s corner, not a header, and he did not play every minute in March and April, having come off after 62 minutes against Busan and with a head injury against Suwon FC. Part 5 follows.