South Korea will enter their Asian Cup quarterfinal off a significantly shorter turnaround than their opponents but coach Jurgen Klinsmann has said his team is ready to “battle” a physical Australia side, and added that if you want to progress in a major international tournament “you have to be ready to suffer.”
After a 99th-minute equaliser from Cho Gue-Sung sent the game into extra time, South Korea earned a dramatic, penalty shootout win over Saudi Arabia to book their place in the Asian Cup’s last eight on Tuesday evening.
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That fixture, however, ended almost 54 hours after Australia had booked their place in the quarterfinals with a 4-0 win over Indonesia, giving coach Graham Arnold’s side, who are renowned for their physicality, a notable advantage in recovery and preparation ahead of Friday’s contest.
But Klinsmann knows something about going deep into tournaments, winning a World Cup and Euros with Germany as a player before leading them to a third-place finish at the 2006 World Cup, and was confident his players would rise to the challenge ahead of them.
“Rest days are what they are,” he said. “You accept it, you move on. We are ready for this huge game and we are very hungry.
“If you want to go through in the knockout phases of a big tournament, you have to suffer. You have to be ready to suffer, you have to deal with pain because you are banged up from the last game. That’s normal.
“The players play this way at their club teams. Many of them play in Europe every three or four days. So it’s no problem.”
The countries are two of Asia’s strongest teams — ranked 23rd and 25th respectively on the FIFA world rankings — and both have qualified for every World Cup since Australia joined the confederation for the 2010 cycle,
Friday evening’s contest, though, will be the first time that Klinsmann has led South Korea against Australia, as well as marking the first competitive fixture between the two since Australia beat South Korea in the 2015 Asian Cup final.
Repeatedly emphasising the respect he had for his opponents, the former USMNT coach noted the threat that South Korea presented on the counterattack and from set pieces — 6-foot-6 defender Harry Souttar’s headed goal against Indonesia was his 11th goal in 26 internationals — while Gue-Sung noted the strength of the Australia defence that has conceded just one goal all tournament.
“Australia is a very solid team, they’re a very strong team,” Cho said through a translator. “Very solid in defence. They’re very physical, they’re strong, they’re big.
“But we have our strengths. We have plenty of qualify going forward, we have speed up front. We have very quick players that can utilise the strength of myself and the others in the team.”
Arnold said that his side is up for the contest at the Al Jaboub Stadium on Friday evening, the site of their upset 1-0 win over Denmark that sent them through to the round of 16 at the 2022 World Cup.
There is a feeling amongst the Australian camp that they are well-suited to succeed in the underdog role against strong opposition such as South Korea, having put forward strong showings against the likes of Argentina (twice), England, and Mexico across the past 14 months.
“It’s about the pressure that we put on the players that have the ball before they play those balls in behind,” Arnold said. “It’s our intent to be in their faces for 90 minutes and put pressure on them.
“One of the strengths is their technique, we’ve got to take away the technical side of things and the way of doing that is pressuring them.”