[Anchor]

At the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, the South Korean men's national football team defeated its archrival Japan to write a new piece of history with its fourth consecutive title. Eom Ji-sung scored the winning goal to lead the team to a thrilling 1-0 victory.

Reporter Hong Seok-jun has the details from the scene.

[Reporter]

With the 45,000-seat Toyota Stadium packed to capacity, the national team fiercely clashed with its fateful rival Japan in the final for the third consecutive time.

In the 6th minute of the first half, Eom Ji-sung stole the ball from an opponent, broke through with a dribble, and recorded the first shot. Japan responded three minutes later with a dangerous header from a corner kick.

After finishing the first half scoreless, Japan created several threatening situations early in the second half. Then, in the 16th minute of the second half, clutch player Eom Ji-sung soared.

Yang Min-hyeok managed to send a difficult cross from the right flank, which Eom received, fainted past a defender, and finished with his left foot to finally open the scoring.

Selected as a wildcard, this was Eom's tournament-leading 4th goal.

Japan, which formed a team of under-21 players in preparation for the Los Angeles Olympics, launched a counterattack utilizing its trademark teamwork, but our players fought back with sheer grit, aided by some luck when Ishii's shot hit the goalpost and went out.

Defending Eom's winning goal until the end, the players piled on top of each other on the pitch in joy once the 1-0 victory was confirmed.

With this, South Korean football has achieved the monumental feat of winning four consecutive Asian Games titles for the first time in history.

[Eom Ji-sung / National Asian Games Men's Football Team Player: I think this is a result we were able to achieve because all the players truly stuck together as one, and thanks to the many fans who came out and cheered for us, we were able to run until the end without giving up.]

True to the resolve expressed by head coach Lee Min-sung's squad right before the tournament, we hope this fourth consecutive title will serve as a golden signal flare to revive South Korean football from crisis.

(Video Journalist: Yang Doo-won | Video Editing: Lee Hong-myung)