South Korea's eye-opening run at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London has come up short of the gold medal match, as one of the world's foremost football nations took one step closer towards complete domination of the field.
Leandro Damiao scored a pair of goals to become the leading scorer at the Olympics, powering Brazil to a 3-0 win over South Korea on Tuesday at Old Trafford in Manchester. The win in the second semifinal of the 2012 Olympic men's football tournament put the Brazilians into the gold medal match against Mexico, a 3-1 winner over Japan earlier in the day at Wembley Stadium in London.
The Brazilians started the scoring in the 38th minute with a goal by Romulo. After a great run by Oscar, the newly-minted Chelsea midfielder sent a pass off to Romulo on his right, and Romulo fired a shot toward the near post that slipped under the outstretched leg of South Korean goalkeeper Bum Young Lee.
Brazil struck again in the 57th minute, as Damiao scored his team-best fifth goal of the Olympics. Damiao was the beneficiary of a great cross from Neymar on the left side, who found the Internacional star near the top of the box for the second goal of the match.
Brazil and Damiao didn't stop there, as Damiao caught Lee off guard with a toe poke toward the far post. Once again, it was Neymar setting up the score, drawing the attention of the defense before passing it off to Damiao, who delivered the ball into the lower left corner of the net.
With the win, Brazil advances to Saturday's final against Mexico, scheduled for a 3 p.m. local start (10 a.m. in the U.S.) at Wembley Stadium. South Korea will face Japan for the bronze on Friday evening, a match scheduled for a 7:45 p.m. start local time (2:45 p.m. in the U.S.).
