HANGZHOU, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) — South Korea got here again to beat Japan 2-1 within the males’s soccer closing right here on Saturday, taking their third consecutive Asian Games title.
Kotaro Uchino gifted Japan an early lead earlier than Jeong Woo-yeong headed to equalize within the first half. Cho Young-wook hit the winner for South Korea simply earlier than the hour mark.
“Today we played for the gold medal, we tried our best and got a good result. I am grateful that so many fans were supporting us late in the night, I also want to thank all the team staff for their effort. Without any of them, this glorious moment wouldn’t have been realized,” South Korea coach Hwang Seon-hong mentioned after the match.
South Korea had crushed Uzbekistan 2-1, whereas Japan had eased previous Hong Kong, China 4-0 to achieve the ultimate.
Japan loved a dream begin as Uchino hit Kein Sato’s cross into the again of the online simply two minutes into the sport.
South Korea equalized within the twenty seventh minute as Jeong headed Hwang Jae-won’s pinpoint go house. Jeong scored seven targets within the competitors to win the Golden Boot award for high goalscorer.
South Korea maintained their momentum within the second half. Hwang dribbled by means of the center to trigger chaos in Japan’s field, and Cho picked up the unfastened ball and despatched it house within the 56th minute.
Victory within the Asian Games implies that South Korea’s gamers are actually exempt from the nation’s obligatory navy service, making certain that their skilled careers won’t be interrupted, although Hwang mentioned this was not uppermost in his gamers’ minds.
“It is actually unrelated [the military service exemption]. If a player puts on the national team jersey, he has the responsibility to play for the country,” Hwang mentioned.
Japan misplaced the ultimate towards South Korea as that they had achieved on the 2018 Asian Games, however coach Go Oiwa mentioned the crew had gained lots from the competitors.
“We’ve been able to play a lot of young players and they improved a lot after these matches. Now we are a much more united and better team. It is very important for the preparation of the Olympic qualifiers up next,” Oiwa mentioned.
In the bronze medal match, Khusain Norchaev scored twice as Uzbekistan beat Hong Kong, China 4-0.