Video: Uzbekistan U-23 - The angry young men of football

Uzbekistan U-23’s Tokhirjon punching his Korean opponent

The 2015 Kings’ Cup was held in Thailand last week and saw the teams of Uzbekistan, South Korea and Honduras join the hosts Thailand. Although the tournament went a little under the radar considering the African Nations Cup and Asian Cup were happening at the same time, the Uzbekistan U-23 team made sure the world stood up and took note.

They faced the U-23 South Korean side, and truly raised a few eyebrows with their highly physical approach against the Koreans. South Korea won the match 1-0 but were left quite shell-shocked by the approach of the Uzbeks.

Among other things, the match saw this very late challenge from defender Sherzod Fayziyev, a challenge with studs raised neck-high (sort of like a clothesline) by midfielder Farrukh Sayfiev and this quite outrageous explosion of punches from Shamshitdinov Tokhirjon, who was quite clearly upset about something (the last two incidents saw the players shown direct reds).

In lieu of all the unprofessional behaviour on display, the Uzbekistan Football Association came out with an unreserved apology, in which they said, “The Uzbekistan Football Federation would like to express sincere apologies for the incidents occurred during the match and declares that Tohir Shamsitdinov and Jaloliddin Masharipov…will undergo strict disciplinary sanctions both by Uzbekistan Football Federation and relevant football clubs.”

A collection of just the violent incidents:

Watch a slightly more detailed video of the match incidents here: