Seoul: The final score had South Korea beating Paraguay 2-0 in their latest men's friendly football match in Seoul on Tuesday, but for the victorious head coach Hong Myung-bo, the biggest victory may have come from off the pitch. Goals by Eom Ji-sung and Oh Hyeon-gyu helped South Korea bounce back at Seoul World Cup Stadium after a 5-0 defeat to Brazil last Friday at the same venue. While the previous match drew over 63,000 fans, Tuesday saw about 22,000 spectators.

According to Yonhap News Agency, perhaps it was the fans' way of showing their displeasure with South Korea's recent performance, but Hong made sure to thank those who did show up. "They came to support us at a difficult juncture for the national team, and they gave us a lot of energy," Hong said at his postmatch presser. "I think the biggest gain for us is that our players overcame their mental hurdles after the Brazil match. I am sure the loss weighed on the guys, but they fended off their fear of failure to grab this victory."

South Korea survived some scares on their own end but still preserved the clean-sheet win. "We saw some individual mistakes on defense, and I think it was due to lingering effects of that loss to Brazil," Hong said. "Overall, I didn't see any major issue with our overall organization. The most important thing is we didn't concede any goal. Our players had great focus."

The coach said he was especially buoyed by the performances of young guns that the national team is trying to develop. Eom is 23 with only four caps to his credit, and Oh, 24, has earned 23 caps so far. Lee Kang-in, who set up Oh's goal, is a young veteran with 42 caps at age 24. "We're investing a lot of time and energy into developing these players," Hong said. "I sent out Oh and Lee together in the second half to see how they would fare together, and they played off each other really well."