Korea beats Switzerland for first win in men's football

COVENTRY, Britain (Yonhap) -- Korea edged Switzerland 2-1 for its first win in men's football on Sunday at the London Olympics.

In the second Group B match at City of Coventry Stadium, Arsenal forward Park Chu-young opened the scoring and new Cardiff City winger Kim Bo-kyung broke the second-half tie with a left-foot strike to give his side big three points.

Korea had tied Mexico 0-0 in the opener on Thursday. The victory gave Korea four points and put them in second place behind Mexico, which defeated Gabon 2-0 earlier Sunday.

Mexico also has four points but leads South Korea on the goal differential tiebreaker.

After a scoreless first half, Park took a cross from Nam Tae-hee and put South Korea on board with a diving header in the 57th minute. But just three minutes later, Switzerland equalized on a header by Innocent Emeghara.

Pajtim Kasami almost put the Swiss ahead moments later with a mid-range strike, but it was South Korea who got the go-ahead score. In the 64th, Kim, who recently finalized his move to the English second-division side, pounced on a loose ball after Koo Ja-cheol's cross went off a Swiss defender.

Korea's final group phase game is against Gabon in London next Wednesday.

This is Korea's seventh straight Olympic appearance and ninth overall, but the country has gone beyond the first round only twice in its previous eight attempts.

The Olympic tournament features four groups of four nations. The top two teams from those groups will make up the quarterfinals.