SYDNEY: South Korea reached the final of the Asian Cup for the first time since 1988 on Monday but listening to coach Uli Stielike you might have thought they had crashed out in the first round.
The 2-0 victory over Iraq put the Taegeuk Warriors into a final against Australia or United Arab Emirates on Saturday and one victory away from winning a third Asian title 55 years after they secured the second.
It was a convincing victory won by a goal from a set piece in each half, which also preserved South Korea’s remarkable record of not having conceded a goal in the tournament.
To Stielike, though, it was almost incomprehensible that his inexperienced squad, deprived of two of their best players through injury, had somehow managed to battle their way past their deficiencies.
“I think first of all it’s the discipline of the players, if you know the Korean mentality, the education, this is what makes this team strong,” the German told reporters, as if searching his mind for some kind of explanation.
“In the first half, we had a lot of technical problems; we gave too many balls away. We see also there are a lot of players without the big match experience. We have to improve a lot if we want to win the final.”
It was a theme familiar to reporters who have witnessed Stielike’s news conferences at the tournament and he reprised it when he spoke about what getting to the final meant to South Korean football more generally.
“After 27 years, it’s the first time South Korea has reached the final,” he said.
“It’s very important for all the work we have to do in the future; there is a lot of work. Even if we win the tournament, Korean football still has a lot of work to do.”
Even not having conceded a goal in five matches in Australia was a potential pitfall as far as Stielike was concerned.
“It’s very dangerous if you are in a situation like this and you concede a goal,” he added.
“You have to have a reaction if this happens, because you have to be careful you don’t automatically lose the game because the players have their heads down.”
Stielike was prepared to concede that by reaching the final, the team had achieved their target at the Asian Cup and should now feel less pressure.
“When we left Korea, we were ranked third in Asia and I said we wanted to have a better result (than our ranking indicated we would),” he said.
“That better result came today. I won’t think about pressure any more, anything that comes now is a bonus.
“We will try to win the cup, no doubt, but team did what they had to do. They took one big step forward.” -- Reuters