Under the leadership of manager Uli Stielike, the South Korean players underperformed in the first two matches against Oman and Kuwait. They won both matches, but expressed dissatisfaction with Stielike, who then handed over command to assistant manager Shin Tae-yong for the rest of the tournament. Goalkeeper Kim Jin-hyeon then kept a clean sheet in every match until the final, as the team eliminated Uzbekistan and Iraq in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, respectively. Their opponent in the final was Australia, which they had already beaten 1–0 in the group stage. However, South Korea lost the final 2–1 after extra time, evoking the 1980 final between them and Kuwait.
South Korea finished in fourth place at the 2014 AFC Women's Asian Cup and qualified for the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, where they made it out of the group stage for the first time. They were drawn in Group E with Brazil, Spain and Costa Rica. South Korea lost 2–0 to Brazil, but a 2–2 draw with Costa Rica and a 2–1 victory against Spain were enough to progress for the first time ever at a World Cup. They went on to lose 3–0 to France in the round of 16.[1]
^The friendly match against Saudi Arabia was not regarded as the official match organized by FIFA because FIFA received the pre-exhibition match document from the Australian Football Association late.
Source: K League Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored (C) Champions; (O) Play-off winners; (P) Promoted
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. Suwon FC was promoted to the K League Classic, while Busan IPark was relegated to the K League Challenge.
