Japan vs. South Korea: 6 Things We Learned from Men's Olympic Bronze Medal Match

South Korea upended Japan 2-0 to claim the 2012 Olympic bronze medal in football.

Park Chu-Young got South Korea on the board first with a nice strike in the 38'. Park controlled the ball through Japanese defenders and put it past the keeper in an impressive display of skills.

They would add one more in the second half when Koo Ja-Cheol found the back of the net in the 57'.

The medal marks the first major medal for South Korea. Their previous best finish was fourth place at the 2002 World Cup.

Here are six things we learned from the bronze medal match.

Bright Future for South Korea

As we all know, the Olympic football tournament is a U-23 tournament.

With the pitch full of young players, we get a glimpse at the future potential of the senior squads, and for South Korea, it is quite bright.

23-year-old Koo Ja-Cheol is a definite bright spot for South Korea.

The senior national team has already showed their quality at the 2010 World Cup, and the team the country fielded for the Olympics should help give them a better chance to place in 2014.

Looking forward to the Brazil World Cup, South Korea is positioning themselves well for another quality run. That is the biggest takeaway from the Olympics. Their young stars are maturing and should be ready to contribute in just a couple of years.

Bright Future for Japan

Yes, they lost. However, Japan showed excellent promise for the future in this tournament.

They defeated gold medal favorite Spain early on, won their group and dominated Egypt in the quarterfinals.

Much like South Korea, they too made the knockout stages of the 2010 World Cup. Two big tournaments and two good results have them in line for another run in 2014.

Kensuke Nagai and Yuki Otsu are just two of the young talents to watch out for moving forward.

Japan wanted to walk away with a medal, but they should not be too depressed about missing out. They showed themselves to be a very good team against some of the toughest competition in the tournament.

Solid results to build upon in the future.

South Korean Players Get Military Exemption

I am not sure which part the Korean team is more happy about: winning bronze or getting the military exemption.

I know which one I would be celebrating about.

The Olympic Games does a good job of educating us about other nation's cultural quirks. The idea that winning a medal could act as an exemption for military service is foreign to most of us. And not for nothing, but it is also a great storyline for the Korean team's journey.

Often times, we take for granted that we have a choice to take up military service in the United States. These young men, however, have no such choice.

Winning a medal was a way to continue their athletic careers unimpeded.

Both Teams Can Be Physical

When we talk about teams from Asia, we typically discuss their brilliance in tactics, passing and various other aspects of their game.

Japan and South Korea demonstrated in the bronze medal match that they can be physical as well.

This match also showed non-football—non-soccer, if you prefer—fans that the beautiful game can sometimes be ugly. The training staff needed to stop several cuts throughout the match.

Blood, sweat, tears were offered to the crowd as both sides left it all on the pitch over the course of the 90-plus minutes of action.

South Korea proved to win the physical battle and the match, as exhausted Japanese players collapsed when the final whistle blew. All of this for the bronze medal.

What awaits everyone when Brazil and Mexico go for gold?

The Olympic Tournament Can Be Just as Fun

Count me in as one of the converted. I fully admit I was not excited for the men's Olympic tournament.

The young guns and some over-age players, of course, brought it all tournament-long, playing fast, loose and free in each of their matches—bringing the masses quality goals and upsets along the way.

Yes, the senior tournaments are what we all look forward to. It is the lifeblood of the sport.

However, with so much pride on the line for each team representing their nation there is something special about the Olympic tournament.

When the match ended, you could see the joy it gave the South Korean team.

These moments—these Olympic moments—are what we tune in to watch.

2014 World Cup Will Be Exciting

OK, we know the World Cup will be exciting. It always is. Still, these U-23 players have shown us a preview of what to expect.

Not all of the players will make the senior squad of course, but many of them will, by either fighting their way in to the starting line-ups or coming off the bench as a super-sub.

The fresh faces of football are sure to make 2014 another great tournament.

There is always turnover from one tournament to the next, and the Olympic Games have given these young athletes a chance to elevate their game and to state their cases for making the future roster—many of whom already have.

As the pages continue to rip off the calendar, we will be hearing some of these young names repeatedly, as nations qualify for the 2014 World Cup.

The first of many times, we will get the opportunity to see them perform on a world stage.