Korea Republic men’s national team kept a clean sheet to edge Cameroon in a friendly to prepare for their group stage opponents Ghana.

Son Heungmin scored the only goal of the game as Paulo Bento’s charges beat Cameroon 1-0 at Seoul World Cup Stadium on Tuesday. Having claimed a 2-2 draw with Costa Rica last Friday, the Taegeuk Warriors rounded off the two-game friendly series with a win and a draw. Korea Republic’s head-to-head record against Cameroon now stands at three wins and two draws following the narrow victory in front of 59,389 fans.

Korea Republic are scheduled to play another friendly in November before leaving for the world finals in Qatar. As the players based in Europe are not likely to participate in the friendly in Europe, the two-game set was the final chance for Bento to test all the best players at his disposal and they did pull off good performances against fellow finalists Costa Rica and Cameroon.

In fact, Bento made a different approach against Cameroon from what he had chosen before, deploying two defensive midfielders instead of one as he used to. In an attempt to reinforce the defence, Bento sought a balance between attack-minded Hwang Inbeom and defensive lynchpin Son Junho.

Son led the attack as a lone striker up front, with Hwang Uijo, who had partnered with the captain against Costa Rica last week, rested on the bench; Hwang Heechan, Jeong Wooyeong and Lee Jaesung started in midfield, in front of the aforementioned duo of Hwang and Son.

The back four consisted of Kim Jinsu, Kwon Kyungwon, Kim Minjae and Kim Moonhwan; with No1 Kim Seunggyu between the sticks. Bento made five changes to the side that drew with Costa Rica, whilst leaving in-form Lee Kangin on the bench.

Son shone brightly as soon as the match got underway, given a free role across all departments to play his own game. The Korea Republic captain broke into the right channel to send an in-swinging cross into the goalmouth, where Hwang Heechan connected with a header into the path of Jeong Wooyeong. However, the latter could only direct a pointblank header straight at Andre Onana, who did well to parry the ball over and away.

The opening salvo kept the visitors at bay, although the hosts struggled to create their chances midway through the first half – bar an audacious effort from Hwang Inbeom with his left foot. Bento responded by moving Son Junho forward in an attempt to keep up the pressure.

The deadlock was finally broken after 35 minutes, when Son found Hwang Heechan on the left flank with a long ball. Hwang then laid the ball into the path of an onrushing Kim Jinsu, who fired a powerful shot from an acute angle. Onana managed to deny the initial effort from close range, but Son was on hand to head home the rebound to score his 35th international goal and second in as many games recently.

Cameroon did have a golden opportunity to restore parity on the stroke of half time. However, Bryan Mbeumo’s effort from the edge of the area was deflected by Kwon Kyungwon before ricocheting off the crossbar.

Bento brought Kwon Changhoon on for Lee Jaesung after the interval, as the hosts picked up where they had left off. As the hosts struggled to translate their dominance into scoring more goals, the coach reshuffled his side midway through the second half: Na Sangho coming off the bench to replace Hwang Heechan on the hour mark, with Son Junho and Jeong Wooyeong replaced by Jung Wooyoung and Hwang Uijo respectively on 72 minutes – Hwang Uijo went up front as Son Heungmin stepped down with the switch.

However, Hwang Uijo was injured ten minutes upon his introduction, forcing Bento to bring on Paik Seungho. The majority of the crowd was left pondering what might have been, chanting the name of Lee Kangin who could not make an appearance in the two-game series eventually.

Son could have scored his second with a curling free-kick that skimmed the roof of the net in the closing minutes, but as it turned out, one goal was just enough to claim the victory.

Korea Republic men’s national team international friendly presented by Hana Bank

Korea Republic 1-0 Cameroon

Scorer: Son Heungmin 35’

KOR: Kim Seunggyu; Kim Jinsu, Kim Minjae, Kwon Kyungwon, Kim Moonhwan; Hwang Inbeom, Son Junho (Jung Wooyoung 72’); Hwang Heechan (Na Sangho 61’), Jeong Wooyeong (Hwang Uijo 72’, Paik Seungho 82’), Lee Jaesung (Kwon Changhoon 46’); Son Heungmin