Niko Kovač’s side knew that merely avoiding defeat would be enough to secure a place in the knockout stages, and they unsurprisingly had the lion’s share of possession under the blazing hot Cincinnati sun.
Still, Ulsan keeper Jo Hyeon-woo looked comfortable in between the sticks until he was forced into a fine one-handed stop to deny Serhou Guirassy.
Moments later, Jobe Bellingham should have found the target with a right-footed volley, but the former Sunderland man instead skied over the bar.
Bellingham was involved in the thick of the action after seeing another attempt blocked, before sliding a separate strike wide.
However, the breakthrough finally came in the 36th minute courtesy of Daniel Svensson. Bellingham teed up the Swede, who took a touch before clinically firing past Jo.
It was the very least Kovač’s side deserved, and Jo denied Pascal Groß from adding a second with a stunning left-leg save. The Ulsan keeper pulled off another superb stop before HT, parrying away Guirassy’s header to somehow keep the deficit at one.
Kim Pan-gon’s men had their first shot of the match shortly after the restart when Kang Sang-woo forced Gregor Kobel into a routine save at the end of a very rare foray forward.
Dortmund then saw another chance go to waste, with Ramy Bensebaini heading over from Svensson’s cross. Ulsan were carrying much more of a threat in the second half, and Kobel was tested again by Lee Jin-hyun’s shot from a tight angle.
BVB aimed to kill off the contest late on, but Jo refused to be beaten again and was again Dortmund’s nemesis, this time thwarting Yan Couto.
It was a fine performance from the Tigers keeper, and it will no doubt go down as one of best individual displays at the tournament.
Nevertheless, it was Kovač’s men who claimed all three points and can look forward to a match against the Group E runners-up in Atlanta next Tuesday.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Jo Hyeon-woo (Ulsan HD)
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