Coach Klinsmann: “The semifinals will be over in 90 minutes”

" We will finish the quarterfinals within 90 minutes." South Korea national soccer team coach Jürgen Klinsmann said at a press conference after the team's hard-fought Asian Cup quarterfinal victory over Australia in extra time on Saturday. In the quarterfinal match against Australia at Al Janub Stadium in Al Wakrah, Qatar, on Saturday, South Korea came from behind to win 2-1 in the 120-minute match, including extra time. Earlier, in the round of 16 against Saudi Arabia on January 31, South Korea won 4-2 on penalty shootouts after a 1-1 draw through extra time.

South Korea will play against Jordan in the semifinals starting at midnight Wednesday at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan. The two teams met once in the Asian Cup group stage about two weeks ago. The teams played to a 2-2 draw. Jordan picked up the momentum and reached their first-ever Asian Cup quarterfinal. After finishing third in Group E behind Bahrain and South Korea, Jordan reached the Round of 16 with a 3-2 upset win over the Group D champion Iraq in the quarterfinals and then ended the great strides of Tajikistan, who miraculously reached the quarterfinals in their first Asian Cup. Jordan's best previous Asian Cup results were quarterfinals in China in 2004 and Qatar in 2011.

South Korea will have to play without their ‘flagship fullback’ Kim Min-jae in the semifinals. After receiving a yellow card once in the first match of the group league, Kim Min-jae received a yellow card again in the quarterfinals and will not be able to play in the semifinals due to his accumulated yellow cards. The yellow cards of Son Heung-min, Lee Kang-in, and nine other players were cleared after the quarterfinals. "We have several options, such as using another center back, Jung Seung-hyun, or defensive midfielder Park Jin-seob (in the center back position), or the unusual tactic of playing a three-back (instead of a four-back)," Klinsmann said.

The tournament's Final Four features South Korea and three nations of the Middle East. The other semifinal matchup is Qatar versus Iran. After the schedule for the quarterfinals was announced, sports statistics company Opta predicted that South Korea had the highest odds (36.0 percent) of winning the tournament, followed by Iran (30.9 percent), Qatar (26.4 percent), and Jordan (9.5 percent).


Bae-Jung Kim wanted@donga.com