`Calmness, stability to be the main factors to win Asian Cup final,` says Stielike

At a press conference on Friday, the eve of the final match at the Asian Cup championship, Coach Uli Stielike of Team Korea picked how much the team’s players can stay cool-minded as the main variable of its success.

The current national team has especially more players with limited A-match experience than previous teams. Fourteen of the 23 players on its roster had played less than 20 A matches prior to the ongoing event. Only five players have played more than 50 A matches -- Cha Du-ri, Ki Sung-yueng, Lee Chung-yong, Lee Keun-ho, and Chung Sung-ryong. Lee Jung-hyup had his A-match debut through the exhibition game right before the opening of the Asian Cup.

“Many of our players are young and have limited A match experience. The main variable is whether they will be able to play the game calmly and cool-mindedly in front of countless spectators. I don’t know either how they will end up playing,” Coach Stielike said. According to the event’s organizing committee, 83,000 tickets for the final match have been sold out.

“The final match is expected to be extremely fierce. The Australia team that Korea will face off in the final will be a team that is completely different from the one we played in the group league. However, if our players do their best playing the game with strong confidence, we will have a chance to win,” Coach Stielike said.

Meanwhile, Australia coach Ange Postecoglou was seen highly wary of Korea itself as team. He said that Aussi will not focus on individual Korean players, but is thinking about how the team will deal with the Korean team as a whole, adding that Korea has good players like Son Heung-min, but his team is vigilant of Korea as a team. The coach cited as reason for his wariness Korea’s stable performances in matches as evidenced by the five consecutive wins it garnered without allowing even a single goal.

Among the participants in this year’s event, Korea has displayed the most constant performance, and how to maintain consistent playing capability would have major impact on the result of the match, the Australia coach said.