Klinsmann’s men finished the first half of their exhibition match against Peru with a 0-1 deficit after being held to just one shot on target.
South Korea’s national football team, led by coach Jürgen Klinsmann, conceded an early goal in the 11th minute and went into halftime trailing 0-1 against Peru at the Asiad Stadium in Busan on Saturday.
Against Peru, Klinsmann deployed a 4-4-2 formation with Oh Hyun-gyu (Celtic) and Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton) up front as the top two strikers.
Lee Jae-sung (Mainz) and Lee Kang-in (Mallorca) were on the left and right wings, while Won Doo-jae (Gimcheon) and Hwang In-beom (Olympiakos) were in charge of the central midfield.
Park Ji-soo (Portimonense) and Jeong Seung-hyun (Ulsan) were the centre-backs without the ‘Kim Min-jae (Napoli) – Kim Young-kwon (Ulsan) duo’, while Lee Ki-je (Suwon) and Ahn Hyun-beom (Jeju) were the left and right full-backs. For Ahn, it was his A-match debut.
In goal was Kim Seung-kyu (Al-Shabaab), who took over the captaincy from Son Heung-min. Son Heung-min was on the bench.
With a new centre-back combination and less solid defence, South Korea found themselves at risk of conceding an early goal to Peru’s strong forward pressure.
In the fifth minute, Ahn Hyun-beom, who was building up on the right flank, lost the ball under intense pressure, and Peru’s “veteran goalkeeper” Paolo Guerrero collected the ball and fired a strong right-footed shot that Kim Seung-gyu threw himself to block.
South Korea eventually conceded in the 11th minute.
A ball from the front of the penalty area by Guerrero was collected by Brian Reina, who dug in on the left side of the penalty area and struck a powerful left-footed shot to open the scoring.
Guerrero’s decision to leave Reina free as the defence swarmed around him was painful.
South Korea’s lack of organisation was broken midway through the first half by Lee Kang-in’s precise passing.
Lee sent a diagonal pass from the right flank in the 26th minute to the head of Lee Jae-sung, who was rushing forward, and then drew a shot from Oh Hyun-gyu in the 28th minute with a clever penetrating pass.
Lee Kang-in took a pass from Hwang Hee-chan in the 34th minute and fired a strong left-footed shot from the left side of the penalty area that the Peruvian goalkeeper struggled to tip over the crossbar. It was Korea’s first shot on target of the day. 안전놀이터
South Korea switched the positions of Lee Kang-in and Lee Jae-sung midway through the first half in an attempt to shake things up, but it didn’t work.
South Korea ended the first half in search of an equaliser in stoppage time when Lee Kang-in was awarded a free-kick near the right side of the penalty area, but was denied by the defence.