South Korea's players toss a member of their coaching staff into the air while celebrating their 2-0 victory over Japan in their men's bronze medal soccer match at the London 2012 Olympic Games at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff August 10, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

South Korea's Sungyueng Ki holds a South Korean flag while celebrating his side's 2-0 victory over Japan in their men's bronze medal soccer match at the London 2012 Olympic Games at Millennium Stadium in Cardiff August 10, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

CARDIFF - South Korea beat Japan 2-0 on Friday to win the bronze medal, their first-ever Olympic football medal.

Arsenal's Park Chu-Young opened the scoring with a superb solo effort in the 38th minute, and the Korean side skipper Koo Ja-Cheol wrapped up the win 11 minutes into the second half.

Japan enjoyed plenty of possessions, but could not break a well-organised Korean rearguard.

It took almost half-an-hour for the first shot on target, with Jung Sung-Ryong unconvincingly parrying Hiroshi Kiyotake's low shot.

Sakai headed over from a corner for Japan, but it was South Korea who took the lead when Park seized on a poor defensive header to brilliantly turn Daisuke Suzuki and fire low beyond Shuichi Gonda.

Yuki Otsu crafted a great chance to level early in the second half, but scuffed his shot after linking with Keigo Higashi.

And the miss was punished seconds later when Sunderland's Ji Dong-Won flicked on goalkeeper Jung's punt downfield to allow Koo to shoot across Gonda into the net.