Simon Davies and Zoltan Gera scored the goals as Fulham came from behind to finish their tour of South Korea on a winning note by beating Ulsan 2-1 at the Big Crown Stadium.
Roy Hodgson’s side should have gone in front in the very first minute when Danny Murphy’s quickly-taken free kick caught the home defence napping but an unmarked Bobby Zamora struck the crossbar as he stretched to finish. The Fulham forward line couldn’t convert a teasing cross from Davies after a lovely move down the right had opened up the Ulsan defence and, in a lively start, Zoltan Gera stung the palms of goalkeeper Kiim Young Kwang with an ambitious drive from 30 yards out.
The home side gradually began to play more football. They were certainly willing to be adventurous with Kim Minoh bursting through two tacklers and shooting over from fully forty yards. But Fulham failed to heed that warning and were behind barely two minutes later. John Pantsil blocked a speculative shot from distance but was then out of position to deal with a cross from the left and Lee Jin Ho’s looping header dropped into the far corner.
Eddie Johnson spurned the best chance of the first half when he shot wastefully over from twelve yards and Leon Andreasen’s dipping thirty yarder just cleared the crossbar right on the stroke of half time. Hodgson sent on Jimmy Bullard for the second half and the shaggy-haired midfielder immediately perked up Fulham’s attacking play. He found Bobby Zamora with a floated forward ball and the striker brought it down beautifully but his shot on the turn lacked the necessary power to beat the goalkeeper.
Bullard did play a pivotal part in Fulham’s leveller, drifting a gorgeous ball over the Ulsan defence to locate the forward run of Simon Davies, who deftly guided a header over the onrushing Kiim Young Kwang to equalise. Hodgson shuffled his pack further sending on Clint Dempsey, Andranik Teymourian and David Healy and the changes paid dividends in the final quarter of an hour.
Gera opened his Fulham account with a predatory finish after a Seol Ki-Hyeon cross had caused confusion in the Ulsan box. Kiim Young Kwang made a magnificent stop turn the Hungarian’s first-time volley onto the frame of the goal, but when the ball bounced back his way via Healy, the former West Brom midfielder measured a confident finish into the other corner. Adranik should have made sure of victory five minutes from time but fired over from ten yards.
ULSAN HYUNDAI (4-4-2): Kiim Young Kwang; Park Dong Hyuk, Kyoung Youl, Kim Dong Kyu, Lee Sang Don; Hyun Young Min, Kim Minoh, Kim Young Sam, Pereira De Souza; Luis Carlos Fernandes, Lee Jin Ho.
GOAL: Lee Jin Ho (32).
FULHAM (4-4-2): Schwarzer; Volz, Konchesky, Pantsil, Hughes; Andreasen (Adranik 75), Murphy (Bullard 45), Davies (Healy 75), Gera; Johnson (Seol Ki-Hyeon 45), Zamora (Dempsey 60). Subs (not used): Stockdale, Zuberbuhler, Milsom.
GOALS: Davies (57), Gera (79).
