Missing their best offensive player and best defender, South Korea lost to Peru 1-0 in their men's football friendly match Friday.
Bryan Reyna's goal in the 11th minute stood as the winner for 21st-ranked Peru at Busan Asiad Main Stadium in Busan, 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
South Korea, world No. 27, played without longtime captain Son Heung-min, who is recovering from a recent sports hernia surgery. Napoli defender Kim Min-jae, named the best defender in Serie A for the 2022-23 season, was also unavailable due to mandatory military training.
The loss left South Korea head coach Jurgen Klinsmann still searching for his first win here. In Klinsmann's first two matches in March, South Korea played Colombia to a 2-2 draw and then lost to Uruguay 2-1.
South Korea will next host El Salvador on Tuesday in Daejeon, some 140 kilometers south of Seoul.
"It was a very interesting game. I think, the first 20-25 minutes, Peru did very well playing out of the back, getting through the midfield because we were not able to get into the one against one battles. So they had an advantage there," Klinsmann said. "And then step by step, our players worked themselves into the game. And I think second half was all us. We had enough chances to score one or two goals to win the game, but unfortunately, we didn't finish them."
Along with Kim Min-jae, another veteran center back, Kim Young-gwon, missed Friday's match with a thigh injury. Klinsmann went with the relatively inexperienced duo of Park Ji-su and Jung Seung-hyun as center backs, with Ahn Hyun-beom making his international debut as the right fullback. Lee Ki-je played in just his fifth match on the left side of the defense.
Minus Son up front, RCD Mallorca midfielder Lee Kang-in was tasked with creating offense.
But Peru assumed the early control of the match and needed only 11 minutes to open the scoring against disorganized Korean defense.
When Paolo Guerrero, who'd threatened to score in the fifth minute, secured the ball in the middle of the box, four South Korean players surrounded him. As they were caught watching the ball, Guerrero flicked the ball to his left to wide-open Reyna, who made no mistake beating Kim with a left-footed strike.
Peru tried to double their lead in the 19th minute, when Guerrero just missed the target with a redirection of a cross by Reyna.
South Korea had their first dangerous look in the 28th minute. Midfielder Lee Kang-in sprung forward Oh Hyeon-gyu down the right wing with a slick one-touch pass, only to see the Celtic forward rolled his show wide of the far post.
Lee tried to take matters into his own hands in the 33rd minute, testing goalkeeper Pedro Gallese for the first time with a left-footed shot from the right edge of the box.
On the ensuing corner, defender Jung Seung-hyun had his shot from the close range blocked.
South Korea created a decent look off a counterattack in the 62nd minute, with Lee Kang-in setting up Oh Hyeon-gyu for a one-on-one opportunity foiled by Gallese.
Lee then bounced a header off the hands of the Peruvian goalkeeper in the 73rd minute. Four minutes later, Lee found the head of second-half sub Cho Gue-sung, who sent the ball wide left of the net.
Lee crossed for Cho once again with his 89th minute corner, but Cho misfired again, this time sending the ball high.
Peru coach Juan Reynoso said he was happy with the win, considering his team also missed a handful of key players.
"I am pleased to get the first win of the season. We were without a few players and had to make a lot of changes, but we still got the good result," he said. "South Korea are a great team who played at the World Cup. I am really happy we played so well against them. But we're not going to stop here. We will keep trying to get better."
Source: Yonhap News Agency