(Sports) S. Korea, Australia in final countdown for Asian Cup showdown

Both teams have made it to the Asian Cup final and spent Friday putting finishing touches to game plans for the Saturday evening match.

Australia and South Korea will play before a sellout crowd of 84,000 at Sydney's Stadium Australia, and the vast majority of the crowd will be fiercely supportive of the host nation.

While South Korea beat Australia 1-0 in their final group A match on Jan. 17, Australia harried the South Korean side and were unlucky not to score.

With the home ground advantage Australia are just ahead as favorites, but South Korea have not conceded a goal in their five lead-up matches to the final.

Their defenders led by Kim Young-gwon and Kim Jin-su plus goalkeeper Kim Jinh-yeon, who made 13 saves from 13 shots at his goal in the lead-up games, will be the wall Australia has to penetrate.

Meanwhile Australia are the leading goal scorers with 12 in the tournament, and two conceded. South Korea has scored six goals so far.

FIFA rankings place Australia 100th in the world, and South Korea 69th.

At a press conference on Friday Australia's coach Ange Postecoglou said his team was ready for the big match.

"We are pleased to be in the final," he said. "It was our goal to make it to the final as we were hosting the tournament."

"It was important that we, as the host country, we're there on the final day, to make it (the tournament) a success."

"We know that it will be a great challenge against a very good opponent. With a sell-out crowd, it will be a great occasion and we are looking forward to it."

Australian captain Mile Jedinak was looking forward to the final match of the tournament which began on Jan. 9.

"It is great to be involved in the final," he said.

"Being the host nation, it is always great to make it to the final game. Tomorrow (Saturday) presents its own challenges and the players are looking forward to it."

South Korea's coach Uli Stielike was underplaying he and his team's chances of winning, perhaps playing the tactic of declaring them to be underdogs -- but hungry ones.

"I don't know how we will go out to the field," he said at South Korea's press conference.

"We have a lot of young players. It's the first time they will be in a big final, in a big event in front of 80,000 people. I don 't know how will be the reaction, if we can control our nerves and we play with calm and with conviction we will have every possibility to win the game."

"We are expecting and preparing for a very tough game tomorrow (Saturday)," Stielike said.

"But, however, we are the team who is unbeaten, we are the team who didn't concede any goals, so we go with a lot of confidence and conviction in the game knowing that we have to play at our best level if we want to beat Australia, because as we saw in the quarter-finals and the semi-finals we had to fight a lot and go into extra time against Uzbekistan."

South Korean midfielder Ki Seung-yueng said his team were aiming to live up to their potential.

"Before I came to this competition, I really wanted to win," he said.

"We always say (South) Korean football is one of the best in Asia because we always went to the World Cup, and we went to semi- finals and qualified from group stages, but on the other hand we never won the Asian Cup which Japan and Saudi Arabia have won more than us."

"So it's a bit weird and a little bit of a shame for ourselves that we never proved that we are the biggest team in Asia. This is a great opportunity for me and for my teammates to show to people that we can be the champions." Endi