Two goals from Ji Dong-won helped South Korea beat Uzbekistan 3-2 Friday to claim third place in the Asian Cup and automatic qualification for the 2015 tournament.
The win was overshadowed by the announcement that the team's star striker, Park Ji-sung, is retiring from international football to concentrate on his Manchester United career. He joined defender Lee Young-pyo who earlier this week also announced his retirement.
"Park and Lee are going to retire by today," Coach Cho Kwang-rae said. "I want to say they did remarkable job ... It would be better if I could hold both of them in the national team. These players did an excellent job and the Korean fans want to congratulate them."
South Korea, beaten by Japan on penalties in the semifinals, struck first when Lee Yong-rae sent a low ball to a streaking Koo Ja-cheol who scored in the 17th minute for his tournament-leading fifth goal.
The Koreans doubled their lead in the 28th minute when Koo nudged a pass over to an unmarked Ji Dong-won, who slotted past the lunging keeper Ignatiy Nesterov.
Uzbekistan, which lost 6-0 to Australia in the tournament's most lopsided semifinal, appeared to be heading for another embarrassing defeat when the Koreans went 3-0 up. Ji powered a header past goalkeeper Nesterov from Hong Jeong-ho's 39th minute cross.
The Uzbeks, however, launched a comeback right at the end of the first half thanks to a dubious penalty call when Korean defender Hwang Jae-won tangled with striker Olim Novkarov on the edge of the area. Alexander Geynrikh scored from the spot to cut the deficit to 3-1.
Geynrikh added a second in the 53rd minute, taking a cross just outside the area, turning defender Lee Jung-soo inside out and then firing a shot past onrushing keeper Jung Sungryong. It was his third goal of the tournament.
But Uzbekistan couldn't find a goal to level the match. Their best chance came in the 62nd minute when midfielder Viktor Karpenko found Novkarov but he only managed a weak shot that Sungryong grabbed easily.
After the win, the South Korea team tossed both Park and Lee into the air as part of their postgame celebrations.
Cho said the two-time Asian champions started strong but ran out of steam in the second half, partly because two of its last three matches had gone into extra time.
"In the first half, it was the performance of our team was very good, excellent," Cho said. "But in the second half, the players showed their fitness level was almost zero so that caused quite a lot of difficult situations."
Cho said he "was not satisfied" with third place and blamed himself for the team's semifinal loss to Japan on penalties. He came under fire for allowing younger players to take the first spot kicks and the team lost 3-0.
"The players have never lost any game in the Asian Cup," he said. "In the penalty shootout, I as head coach by my misjudgment lost to Japan."
Uzbekistan's coach Vadim Abramov seemed to want to continue talking about the beating his team took against Australia, rather than its hard-fought defeat to South Korea.
"The 6-0 against Australia was a shock to my players," Uzbekistan coach Vadim Abramov said. "I told my players at halftime, play as you can. Uzbekistan can play much better than you've seen here."
Despite finishing fourth, Abramov said he expects better from his players in the future.
"I believe the players can play much better than what you saw now," Abramov said. "Uzbekistan has many young players. My dream is for Uzbekistan to go for the World Cup. I believe it can go, no problem."
Lineups:
Uzbekistan: Ignatiy Nesterov, Shavkatjon Mulladjanov, Azizbek Haydarov, Server Djeparov, Odil Akhmedov, Olim Novkarov (Shavkat Salomov, 77), Stanislav Andreev, Alexander Geynrikh, Sanjar Tursunov, Sanjar Temur Juraev, Anzur Ismailov, Sakhob Juraev, Odil Akhmedov, Timur Kapadze, Viktor Karpenko
South Korea: Jung Sungryong; Hwang Jae-won, Lee Yong-rae, Ji Dong-won, Lee Young-pyo, Koo Ja-cheol (Yoon Bit-garam 53), Lee Jung-soo, Hong Jeong-ho (Kwak Tae-hwi, 79), Ki Sung-yueng, Lee Chung-yong (Son Heung-min, 60) Cha Du-ri
