Son Heung-min heads in the winner as Korea beat Cameroon in final World Cup tuneup

Korea rounded off their World Cup tune-up campaign with a 1-0 win against Cameroon on Tuesday, with captain Son Heung-min heading in the sole goal in an otherwise fairly lackluster performance.

Son Heung-min celebrates after scoring the opening goal for Korea in a friendly against Cameroon at Seoul World Cup Stadium in western Seoul on Tuesday. [NEWS]

Korea rounded off their World Cup tune-up campaign with a 1-0 win against Cameroon on Tuesday, with captain Son Heung-min heading in the sole goal in an otherwise fairly lackluster performance.

With less than two months to go and no matches left to play before the 2022 World Cup kicks off in Qatar in November, Korean head coach Paulo Bento and the Taeguk Warriors needed a win on Tuesday, both to prove the tactics work and to give the players before they hit the big stage.

Bento got his win, but not decisively enough to instill much confidence.

At No. 38 in the world to Korea’s No. 28, Cameroon should have provided a fairly soft target for Korea, who have never lost to the African country.

But despite the odds leaning toward Korea, the Taeguk Warriors seemed to struggle at both ends of the pitch on Tuesday.

Defense was less of a concern than it had been during last week’s draw with Costa Rica, although in part that may be because Cameroon did not press too hard. Kim Jin-su at left back and Kim Moon-hwan at right back played a less aggressive role, although center back Kim Min-jae did seem prone to stray out of his spot a bit more often than might be expected.

At the other end of the pitch, the too-many-cooks problem persisted, with most attacks falling apart due to the very slow buildups or because there are just too many bodies in and around the box.

Unlike against Costa Rica last week, when the majority of the attacking line seemed to struggle to effectively play their positions, Tuesday’s tepid offensive didn’t really seem to be the fault of any specific players, although perhaps an attempt to put the brakes on the all-out attacks slowed things down too much.

The one goal of the game came in the 35th minute, when a Kim Jin-su effort was deflected into the path of Son, who neatly headed it into the top left corner of the goal. Cameroonian goalkeeper André Onana got a hand to it but was unable to prevent the goal from being scored.

Son Heung-min heads in the opening goal for Korea in a friendly against Cameroon at Seoul World Cup Stadium in western Seoul on Tuesday. [YONHAP]

At the other of the pitch, Cameroon had a few good chances on goal, especially later in the game when cracks started to appear in the defense as the players tired, but a combination of veteran goalkeeper Kim Seung-gyu and some near misses kept the visitors off the scoreboard.

Bento made some changes to the starting lineup on Tuesday, with veteran midfielder Lee Jae-sung starting, along with Jeong Woo-yeong and Son Jun-ho. All three were replaced later in the game, when Bento opted to bring back Hwang Ui-jo and give younger players Na Sang-ho and Paik Seung-ho an opportunity.

Hwang lasted less than 10 minutes before he was taken off with an injury, signaling to the bench that he was in serious pain and heading straight down the tunnel. Although he had little impact on either friendly, the loss of one of Korea’s most experienced forwards this close to the World Cup could be disastrous.

As of press time, the extent of Hwang’s injury remains unclear.

Surprisingly, Bento chose not to use Lee Kang-in, whose three assists and a goal in six La Liga games this season were apparently not enough to convince the head coach to give him a go.

Lee Kang-in, who is in the middle of a breakout season with Mallorca, was called up to the national team this month for the first time in over a year, an opportunity that many saw as an important chance for Bento to give one of Korea’s youngest stars a chance to prove he deserves a World Cup spot.

But whether the lack of playing time is because Lee failed to impress in training or Bento remains skeptical about his potential despite his club performance, with zero minutes played over the international break he looks unlikely to get the call in November.

After a few more days of training, the Taeguk Warriors will head back to their respective clubs to play just under two months of league football, before reconvening in Qatar in the middle of November for the 2022 World Cup.

Korea, competing in Group H will play their opening game against Uruguay on Nov. 24.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]