South Korea's women's under-17 national football team made a strong start to the Asian Cup, powered by a one-woman show from Baek Seo-young of Gyeongnam Robot High School.
Korea, led by head coach Lee Da-young, routed the Philippines 5-0 in their Group C opening match of the 2026 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-17 Women's Asian Cup held at the Taihu Football Sports Center in Suzhou, China, on Tuesday.
Baek was the star of the match. She opened the scoring in the 6th minute and added two more goals in the 14th and 34th minutes to complete a first-half hat-trick. She scored her fourth goal in the 55th minute. Kim Hee-na of Ulsan Hyundai High School sealed the win with a goal in the 67th minute.
Korea dominated the match with 33 shots, 17 of them on target. The Philippines managed only two shots, none on target.
Korea will continue group-stage play against Taiwan on Friday and against defending champion and four-time winner North Korea on Monday. The tournament features 12 nations, with the top two teams from each group and the two best third-placed teams advancing to the quarterfinals. The four semifinalists will secure berths for the 2026 FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup to be held in Morocco in October.
Korea won this tournament once, in 2009, and finished third at the 2024 edition in Indonesia.
