Season Review, Part 17: Byun Kyung-jun, Two Goals at Paju and a Goodbye at Gudeok

Part 16 covered Bae Seo-jun. Part 17 is the only player in the series whose season is already finished. Byun Kyung-jun played his last match for Seoul E-Land at Busan on August 2, set up the winner, and reported to the army the next morning. By the simplest count, his goals at Paju and his cutback at Busan turned two draws into wins: four of the 48 points Seoul carry into the run-in.

The season in one paragraph

Byun went into 2026 in a new shirt, the 11 he had wanted since he was a boy, after three years in 16 and a 2024 season of 10 goals and 6 assists that took Seoul to their first promotion playoff. He was seriously injured just before the opener and missed the first six rounds. On April 2 the Military Manpower Administration confirmed he was one of 14 players accepted for Gimcheon Sangmu, enlisting August 3 for 18 months, so from his first match back the clock was running. He came on at Paju on April 11 and scored twice in five minutes, scored again at Ansan eight days later, and headed the assist for Park Jae-yong against Hwaseong the week after that: four goal involvements in his first three appearances. Then eight appearances without one, most of them off the bench. Then Busan, where he came on after half an hour, beat his man on the left and cut the ball back for Park Jae-yong’s winner. Twelve appearances, two starts, 560 minutes, three goals, two assists. He will not be back before the season ends: his service runs to February 2028.

By the numbers

	2025	2026 (Rounds 7 to 20)
Appearances, starts	33	12, 2
Minutes	1,687	560
Goals	7	3
Assists	3	2
Minutes per goal involvement	169	112
Shots, on target		14, 8
Touches in the opposition box		28
Tackles		10
Yellow cards	6	2

Appearances, minutes, goals, assists and cards are the club’s official figures. Shots, touches and tackles are FotMob’s.

What he has done well

Paju, April 11. Seoul were 1-1 and struggling when Kim Do-gyun sent him on for Kang Hyeon-je in the 70th minute of his first match of the season. Nine minutes later Euller lifted a ball over Paju’s defense from near halfway and Byun ran onto it and finished with his left foot. Five minutes after that Euller found Oh In-pyo with another lob, Oh squared it, and Byun scored again. His account afterward was that Euller had told him in the first half that if he made that run, the ball would come, and that he had “only added a spoon to the meal Euller and In-pyo prepared.” It was Seoul’s third straight win, and the fourth came at Ansan eight days later.

He scores when the team needs it. The Ansan goal was the second of a 2-0 win, a right-footed shot from in front of the arc off Park Jae-yong’s lay-off, fifteen minutes after he came on. Against Hwaseong he came on at halftime with Seoul losing and headed Euller’s cross across goal for Park’s finish. Asked at Paju why he tends to score in big moments, he said there was no secret, only doing what he is there to do. On his numbers this year, what he is there to do is produce something every 112 minutes, the best rate of his time at the club.

Speed, used properly. Byun told MK Sports in June that he has never been timed over 100 meters but thinks he would be in the 11-second range, and that Kim Do-gyun’s instruction is always the same: attack the space behind, and be calmer near goal. Both Paju goals and the Busan winner came from exactly that. When the space was not there, his answer was to keep it simple and take on his man only when it was one against one.

Busan, August 2. He knew it was his last match. He had not had a goal involvement since April. He came on for Lee Ju-hyeok on 30 minutes at Gudeok, drove down the open flank ten minutes later to set up a chance, had a one-on-one saved by Koo Sang-min after Carius put him through on 74, and then, with the score 1-1, took Euller’s switch on the left, beat Kim Jin-hyeok and cut it back for Park Jae-yong to win it. “My teammates said, since it’s my last game, let’s send him off smiling,” he said afterward. “I hadn’t had an attacking point lately, so I thought how good it would be to help the team a little before I left. Today it fell into place.” It was the result that pulled Seoul level on points with Busan and one behind the leaders.

Where the same mistakes keep showing up

Eight matches, nothing. From Gimpo on May 3 to Cheonan on July 24 he played eight times and produced no goal and no assist. Most of those were 20 to 35 minutes off the bench, but he also started at Jeonnam and against Cheonan and was off within the hour both times. He said it himself on his last night.

The final touch. Kim Do-gyun’s most repeated instruction to him, by Byun’s own account, is to be calmer in front of goal. The Busan one-on-one is the example: through on Koo Sang-min, shot saved. At Suwon FC in July he ran onto a Park Jae-yong knockdown and dragged it wide. Eight of his 14 shots were on target, which is good, but three goals from them and one big miss in a match Seoul had to win is the difference between a useful substitute and a decisive one.

He never got a run of starts. Two starts in twelve appearances. The injury cost him the first six rounds, and by the time he was fit, Euller, Lee Ju-hyeok, Kang Hyeon-je, Kim Hyun and later Carius were ahead of him. That is partly the manager’s choice and partly the enlistment date: a player leaving in August was never going to be built around.

His strengths, and what they mean for the last six

He will not play in them. What he leaves is a gap and a template.

The gap. Five days after Busan, at Hwaseong, Seoul had 60 percent of the ball and nobody who would run past a deep block. The digest from that match said as much, and the club agreed: Hong Seok-jun was signed from Chungbuk Cheongju on August 19 specifically to fill the space Byun left. Seoul have taken 12 points from seven matches since, with nine goals. Against Gimpo, Gimhae, Yongin, Jeonnam, Chungnam Asan and Gyeongnam, all sides likely to sit deep, somebody has to make his run.

The template. Ahn Joo-wan is the obvious heir, and our Round 23 digest named him as the only player with that pace since Byun left. The Paju goals are the pattern: Euller looks up, the runner goes early, the ball goes over the top. Hong Seok-jun is the other option.

The Gimpo memory. Seoul’s last visit to Gimpo, in October 2025, was won 1-0 by a Byun goal in the third minute of stoppage time. The first of the last six is back there on October 9.

The verdict at Round 27

Half a season, 560 minutes, five goal involvements, four of them in wins, and a farewell that won a match against a direct rival. He said as he left that he had no doubt Seoul would go up and that he would watch every match from Gimcheon. If they do, the four points from Paju and Busan will be part of the reason.

Grade so far: B. A role player who did his role: decisive off the bench in April and again on his last night. The absence of a plus is for the eight blank matches between them.

Match log

Round	Opponent	Result	Role	Goals	Assists	Note
1 to 6			Injured			Hurt just before the opener
7	Paju (A)	W 3-1	Sub, 70’	2		Two in five minutes, from Euller’s lobs
8	Ansan (A)	W 2-0	Sub, 57’	1		Right foot from the arc, Park Jae-yong lay-off
9	Hwaseong (H)	L 1-2	Sub, halftime		1	Headed Euller’s cross across for Park
10	Gimpo (H)	W 2-1	Sub			Booked
11	Chungnam Asan (A)	L 0-3	Sub, halftime
12	Yongin (H)	D 2-2	Sub
13	Seongnam (H)	W 3-1	Sub
14	Jeonnam (A)	W 1-0	Start			Off before the hour
15	Chungbuk Cheongju (H)	L 1-2	Sub, 62’
16	Gimhae (A)	W 3-1	Unused sub
18	Suwon FC (A)	D 2-2	Sub			Shot dragged wide
19	Cheonan (H)	W 4-3	Start			Last home match, booked
20	Busan (A)	W 2-1	Sub, 30’		1	Cutback for Park’s winner, the day before enlisting

Statistics from the K League record and the club site, with match detail from the season’s digests and Korean match reports. Corrections to earlier digests: his Ansan goal came from Park Jae-yong’s lay-off rather than a solo run, the second Paju goal was set up by Oh In-pyo’s return pass, and Round 19 was his last home match rather than his last match. Part 18 follows.