“It’s frustrating.”
These were the words of Kotaro Uchino (19), a frontline player who had to watch his team lose against South Korea.
The South Korean Asian Games football team, led by Hwang Sun-hong, won the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games final against Japan 2-1 behind goals from Chung Woo-young and Cho Young-wook at the Huanglong Sports Center Stadium in Hangzhou, China, on Sunday at 9 p.m. ET. They won the gold medal.
Hwang Sun-hong made history. After winning back-to-back gold medals at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games and 2018 Jakarta Palembang Asian Games, South Korea won its third consecutive title. No team has ever won three consecutive Asian Games titles. Previously, Chinese Taipei (1954-1958), Myanmar (1966-1970), and Iran (1998-2002) won back-to-back Asian Games soccer titles, but failed to win three in a row.
South Korea didn’t get off to a good start. They conceded an early goal. In the second minute of the first half, Sato sent in a low cross from the left flank. Shigemi passed it straight to Uchino, who rattled the Korean net with a right-footed shot from the edge of the box.
In the 27th minute, South Korea equalized. Jung Woo-young’s head shone through. Baek Seung-ho first shook Japan’s right flank with a solo run. He then laid the ball off to Hwang Jae-won, who sent a cross into the box. Jung Woo-young had one opponent on him, but he won the aerial ball battle and headed the ball into the back of the Japanese net.
South Korea pulled one back in the 11th minute of the second half. Hwang Jae-won drove the ball into the Japanese box with a daring breakaway and then played a short pass to the left. Jung Woo-young received it and tried to shoot, but he lost his center of gravity slightly and gave the ball to Cho Young-wook in front of him. Cho was calm. He beat one of his opponents with a one-on-one and scored his team’s second goal with a low, quick shot. The game ended with a one-goal victory for South Korea.
For the second straight tournament, Japan failed to break through the Korean barrier and finished as runners-up.
Five years ago at the 2018 Asian Games Jakarta-Palembang final, South Korea and Japan went into extra time after a 0-0 first half. Lee Seung-woo (Suwon FC) scored the first goal in the third minute of extra time and Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton) added a goal in the 11th minute of extra time to give South Korea the gold medal over Japan, who 사설토토 recovered from a one-goal deficit in the last 10 minutes of extra time. South Korea had previously beaten Japan 1-0 in the quarterfinals in Incheon in 2014.
Japan is devastated to have been stopped again by South Korea. “After the last tournament, Japan lost to South Korea again and finished as runners-up,” Gekisaka said, shaking his head.
According to Gekisaka, Uchino, who scored the first goal of the game, said, “I’m upset that we didn’t score another goal.”