Mens Olympic Football - South Korea v Japan

Its an all Asian affair for the bronze medal place and both teams will be up for the game after dissappointing semi final performances. These games are usually ignored but can produce cracking games.

London 2012 Mens Olympic Football - Game Day 6 - Bronze Medal Match.

South Korea U23 v Japan U23 - (Cardiff 10th Aug) Best Match Odds:2.90 3.30 2.65

Tournament Form: South Korea P5 W1 D3 L1 GF3 GA5 Scorers:Chu-Young 1,Bo-Kyung 1, Dong-Won 1.

Tournament Form: Japan P5 W3 D1 L1 GF6 GA3 Scorers: Otsu 3, Nagai 2, Yoshida 1.

Team Analysis: South Korea played a pretty ordinary tournament but still find themselves in contention for a medal. They were in an easy group and got through with only one win. Playing favourites Brazil was always going to be an impossible task but they started off well and even threatened on several occasions. They tried to play the game at a high tempo but Brazil were carving them open regularly throughout the match. South Korea defended manfully for 30 minutes before caving in under constant pressure. They conceded twice more in the 2nd half and never really had many clear cut chances. Like every other team in the competition they found themselves struggling to commit men forward knowing that Brazil would then counter with extra men. Japan will be dissappointed to only be going for bronze after playing some great games. The semi final was a bit of a non event for the Japanese who never turned up. They even went a goal ahead but never looked in control of the match. They were sluggish and sloppy in possession and were dominated by the Mexicans. They were never tested in the previous games so we were unsure of their defensive strength, under pressure they wilted. They were ruthlessly exposed by the crafty play of the Mexicans who coasted to a 2 goal victory. Japan never really believed in themselves in this game and deservedly got nothing from the match.

Betting Analysis - These two teams have been priced up very closely together but in truth Japan are head and shoulders above South Korea. Usually the 3rd place playoff is a non-affair with nothing to play for, but as this game has the important bronze medalk attached both teams should take it seriously. Japan in 90 minutes at 2.65 could be the price of the tournament so far. A huge price. These games are usually high scoring affairs so we will take over 2.5 goals @2.20 also.