Five games, five wins but Stielike wants more

DPA/SydneyStatistics suggest South Korea have strolled to the final of the Asian Cup by winning five matches out of five without conceding a goal but coach Uli Stielike has warned an improvement is needed to lift the trophy for the first time since 1960. The latest victory was a 2-0 semi-final success over Iraq in which the team never looked like losing. “You saw today in the first half we had a lot of technical problems, we lost too many balls, gave to many balls away. We also saw we still have a lot of players without big experience for playing games today. Nam (Tae Hee), is a young player, with 10 international games or less, we have a few players like him. “You see when players with lot of experience like Cha (Du Ri) or Ki (Sung Yueng), it’s another football (game), and we are quieter on the bench. We have to improve a lot if we want to win the final game.” The final, also in Sydney, is on Saturday and South Korea will face the winner of the second semi-final between Australia and the United Arab Emirates. Not that Stielike is unsure of who his side will be taking on. “Australia, I have no doubt, Australia is the strongest team in the tournament,” he said. “They play very good and very strong, each player knows what to do. “For me, no doubt about it, Australia will go forward but I think also a lot of people thought Federer would be in semi-final or final (of the Australian Open).” While Stielike was praising Australia, a side South Korea have already beaten in the group stage, he also took the chance to launch the first strike in the potential psychological battle in the run-up to the final. “You know the Australian team we beat that day? Jedinak injured, Leckie on the bench, Cahill on the bench, Kruse on the bench. It will not be the same Australia. “We have to work to be the same South Korea. This is our target, for the rest we have to take whatever is coming and try our best. We are realistic in the first game that we didn’t play the best Australia team.” But Stielike claimed that having an extra day rest compared to the Socceroos could prove useful—and had been achieved because of tournament organizers attempting to favour the hosts. “For us in this tournament we had two important games,” he said. “The first one was Australia because the design of the tournament, and this (is in) a legal and normal way, the host is trying to get the best way to reach the final,” he said. “So the design was made for Australia. But with our victory, we took the position of Australia and that gave us the advantage of having one day more rest in the upcoming games. This was very important. “And the second big victory for us, for the federation, was today. After 27 years it’s the first time South Korea is in the final again. “It very important for all the work we have to do in future. Because there is a lot of work. Even if we win the tournament, South Korean football has a lot of work to do.”