By ,
Published November 20, 2014
Chuyoung Park and Jacheol Koo scored on each side of half as South Korea downed Japan, 2-0, on Friday at Millennium Stadium in the bronze medal game in men's Olympic soccer.
Park scored in the 38th minute and Koo in the 57th, as South Korea claimed its first medal its ninth appearance. South Korea lost just once in the event - in the semifinals to Brazil.
Japan won its lone Olympic medal in men's soccer in 1968, when it won bronze.
Park opened the scoring in the battle of Asian countries seven minutes before halftime as he made a run through traffic and slotted off the hand of Japanese goalkeeper Gotoku Sakai to the right post.
Koo added the second goal for South Korea 12 minutes after half, as he settled the ball and drilled a shot off a short hop across his body to the bottom-left corner.
Bokyung Kim hit the right post on the hour-mark as South Korea nearly scored a third goal, but Japan could never respond to the two-goal deficit.
The closest Japan came to scoring was in the 87th, when Kenyu Sugimoto headed in a goal that was called back for a foul on teammate Maya Yoshida, who wiped out Korea goalkeeper Sungryong Jung.
Brazil and Mexico meet in the gold medal match on Saturday at 10 a.m. (ET) at Wembley Stadium.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/south-korea-tops-japan-for-bronze-in-mens-soccer