A much-changed Australia side has fallen to a narrow 1-0 friendly defeat to Korea Republic in Busan.
Socceroos coach Graham Arnold rested all of his stars ahead of the match and handed two players their international debuts from the start in Korea.
After putting an early effort wide, Mitch Duke nearly put the green and gold ahead in the 18th minute with his header following a corner hitting the far post.
Australia were asking plenty of questions of South Korea in the first-half as the hosts just managed to deal wtih Australia’s aerial threat.
In response, Paulo Bento’s men were struggling to get past the Socceroos back four, though they were nearly gifted a goal before half-time as Matthew Jurman just managed to steer his block wide of goal with Andrew Redmayne stranded.
After the break, South Korea seized the initiative with Tottenham star Son Heung-min leading the way as they eventually opened the scoring in the 76th minute.
Substitute Hwang Eui-Jo poking home a deflected cross at the near post to hand the home side the lead.
Son nearly doubling his side’s lead in the 82nd minute with Redmayne doing well to save a driven effort destined for the bottom left corner.
Australia ultimately unable to find the back of the net in a 1-0 defeat that suggested a number of fringe Socceroos are ready to step up when needed across World Cup qualifying despite the result.
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