Olympians Complete Perfect Run

Hankooki - The South Korean Olympic football team capped off their perfect qualifying campaign with a 1-0 win over Iran Wednesday night at Seoul's World Cup Stadium.

With South Korea looking like it wouldn't keep its winning run going in the final qualifying round for the Athens Olympics, Kim Du-hyun found himself alone in front of the Iranian net and headed Choi Won-kwon's cross home just seconds before full-time.

Kim, one of South Korea's top performers through the six games in Asia's Group A, added to the luster of a campaign that saw the team beat out rivals Iran, China and Malaysia, scoring nine times while not allowing a single goal in return.

South Korea went into the game comfortable in the knowledge that they had locked up the country's fifth straight qualification for the Olympic tournament but there was plenty of pride at stake for the Asian rivals.

The Iranians came out determined to avenge a 1-0 loss on Teheran and striker Arash Borhani threatened the goal several times early only to be ruled offside on both occasions.

Kim Jung-woo had the hosts first chance with a long-range attempt that sailed over the bar of Sayed Mahdi Rahmati's goal.

With the teams playing fairly even, Choi Sung-kuk would get a chance five minutes before the break, running under a long ball but tried a centering pass when he should have taken a shot. Cho Jae-jin was also at fault just before the whistle, taking to long and allowing an Iranian defender to get back and block his attempt at goal.

Both teams stepped up the pace after the interval and Satar Zare could only watch as his blast deflected off South Korea's Kim Chi-woo and over the net four minutes in. South Korean goalkeeper Kim Young-kwang had hardly been tested over the past few months, but showed his quality with a pair of stunning saves in the 58th minute as Iran's Borhani and Moharram Navidkia threatened from in close.

Second-half sub Chun Jae-woon had the ball in the net for South Korea four minutes later but it was disallowed as he hadn't waited for the referee to set up the play.

As the hosts pressed for the winner, Choi Sung-kuk was put in the clear by a crafty pass from Kim Du-hyun in the 80th minute, but the speedy winger ran out of space as Rahmati charged out.

However, Kim would make no mistake when his chance arrived, as the diminutive playmaker got his head to Choi's Won-kwon's cross from the right and provide the perfect ending to a perfect run.