Top-scorers Australia will try to unlock the Asian Cup’s stingiest defence on Saturday when they meet South Korea in a blockbuster final between two of the region’s heavyweights.
The Socceroos are desperate to win a first Asian title on home soil, but to do so they will have to find a way through a Korean rearguard which has not conceded all tournament.
It could be a case of who blinks first as Australia look to be crowned kings of Asia, after defecting from Oceania in 2006, and South Korea try to end a hoodoo stretching back a staggering 55 years.
Runners-up to Japan in 2011, Australia have hit 12 goals in five games and they will start as slight favourites, despite losing 1-0 to South Korea in the group phase.
Coach Ange Postecoglou opted to rest talisman Tim Cahill for that game in Brisbane and he was robbed of captain Mile Jedinak through injury, but he insisted the result would count for little with the stakes now so high.
“Previous records go out the window,” he told reporters on Friday. “It will be the team able to deal with whatever may happen who wins, because finals never run to script.”
Cahill has netted three times so far, including a venomous overhead kick in the quarter-final win over China, and is likely to be central to the plot in one of the biggest games in Australia’s history.
“It just takes one second for someone to switch off,” said the former Everton forward. “Hopefully I can be on point to make it count.”
Both teams possess players capable of delivering a knockout blow, with South Korea hoping golden boy Son Heung-Min can weave his magic as they seek to win a first Asian Cup since 1960 having already defied the odds by reaching the final.
– Curious anomaly –
Their title drought is a curious anomaly for a nation who stormed to the World Cup semi-finals in 2002, but they have reached the final — their first in 27 years — despite an injury crisis and a flu bug which swept through the squad, forcing medical staff to work overtime.
“It’s been too long for Korea to be champions,” said captain Ki Sung-yueng, who has been a calming influence on South Korea after losing the dynamic pairing of Lee Chung-Yong and Koo Ja-Cheol in the group stages.
“We don’t have anything to lose in this game, maybe Australia have more pressure than us. I told the players it’s a great opportunity, maybe once in a lifetime, to become Asian Cup champions so everyone is ready for tomorrow.”
South Korea are the first team to reach the final without conceding a goal since Iran in 1976, but their resilience will be severely tested by Australia’s firepower in front of a sell-out crowd of nearly 80,000 in Sydney and an estimated global audience of 80 million.
The players were pelted with toffee — a traditional insult in South Korea — on their return from last year’s World Cup, but German coach Uli Stielike has performed wonders since taking over as they look to emulate the under-23 side’s Asian Games gold medal in October.
As many as 30,000 Korean “Red Devils” fans are expected to add spice to the atmosphere but Stielike confessed his young team could freeze.
“I don’t know what their reaction will be,” shrugged the German. “If we can control our nerves we have every possibility to win.”