OSAKA, September 30 — South Korea advanced to the men’s football final at the 2026 Asian Games after a 2-1 semifinal victory over China in Osaka, setting up a title clash with hosts Japan on Saturday. The win, secured by goals from Lee Young-jun of Grasshopper and Bae Jun-ho of Stoke City, came after Korea overcame an early deficit in the match held at an unspecified venue in Osaka. This marks the third consecutive Asian Games men’s football gold medal showdown between Korea and Japan.
Earlier in the Games, Korea began its medal tally in archery with two medals in compound team events. Park Jung-yoon, Park Ye-rin, and Kang Yeon-seo claimed bronze in the women’s team event after defeating Chinese Taipei 229-228 in the third-place match at Okazaki Chuo Sogo Park Multipurpose Square in Okazaki, located about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southeast of Nagoya.
In the mixed team event, Park Jung-yoon and Choi Yong-hee earned silver following a 157-157 tie after four ends, losing to India 20-19 in a shoot-off. In judo, Jang Se-yun took silver in the women’s -52 kg category, losing to Uzbekistan’s Sita Kadamboeva by ippon in the final. Sport climbing produced silver for Lee Do-hyun in the men’s boulder (49.7 points, behind Japan’s Sorato Anraku’s 74.5 for gold) and bronze for Jeong Ji-min in the women’s speed event.
Cycling yielded four bronze medals: two in the women’s team pursuit at Izu Velodrome (Kim Min-jeong, Jang Su-ji, Noh Yun-seo, Shin Ji-eun) and men’s team pursuit (Park Sang-hoon, Hong Seung-min, Kim Hyeon-seok, Kim Kyeong-ho), plus individual bronzes for Shin Ji-eun in the women’s time trial road cycling on September 20 — Korea’s first medal of the Games — and Kim Min-seok in the men’s 130 kg Greco-Roman wrestling event on Day 1.
Additional podium finishes included Seo Chae-hyun’s bronze in women’s boulder climbing, Jung Ha-eun’s gold in women’s individual poomsae taekwondo — Korea’s first in the discipline at these Games — and Huh Mi-mi’s gold in the women’s 57 kg taekwondo final, defeating Mongolia’s Terbish Ariunzaya. The absence of a men’s taekwondo medal means Korea has gone back-to-back Asian Games without a podium finish in the sport for the first time since 1962.
Meanwhile, the women’s field hockey team lost 2-0 to India in the semifinals and will contest the bronze medal match against Japan on Friday. With the men’s football final looming against Japan, Korea seeks to add to a strong overall performance across archery, judo, climbing, cycling, wrestling, and taekwondo at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games.
