South Korea's players were furious with the match officials after Friday's 2-0 defeat to Switzerland confirmed their exit from the tournament.

Argentine referee Horacio Elizondo allowed Alexander Frei's 77th-minute second goal for the Swiss to stand after his linesman had flagged for offside.

Elizondo over-ruled his assistant as the ball to Frei had come off a South Korea defender but Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-sung could not understand why the goal was allowed to stand.

"The defenders saw the linesman had raised his flag so we stopped playing," he said. "But the referee continued play.

"I asked the linesman why he put his flag up but he just answered (me) that I should carry on. He did nothing. I'm very upset about the situation.

"We're very shocked because we really wanted to get to the second round. We couldn't quite get the results we needed. It's shocking for us."