South Korea will take an attack mindset into their rival showdown against Japan at the top Asian men's under-23 football tournament in Saudi Arabia, their assistant coach said Monday.
South Korea will face Japan in the semifinals of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Asian Cup at King Abdullah Sports City Hall Stadium in Jeddah on Tuesday. The kickoff is 2:30 p.m. local time, or 8:30 p.m. in South Korea.
Assistant coach Lee Kyung-soo, who attended the prematch press conference in place of head coach Lee Min-sung, who had fallen ill, said South Korea will try to exploit space behind Japan's defense.
"If we can take advantage of space in the back and apply some hard pressing, we can maximize our strengths," he said. "We will concentrate on playing a quick transition game and applying counter pressing after we lose possession."
With an eye toward the 2028 Olympics, also a U-23 competition, Japan have put together a team of players aged 20 or younger, including three 18-year-olds. South Korea, on the other hand, are an older group with several 22-year-olds and just two teenagers.
Japan won all three Group B matches over the United Arab Emirates, Syria and Qatar, scoring 10 goals while conceding none. Then they defeated Jordan 4-2 on penalties in the quarterfinals.
South Korea took a much different path to the semifinals. They had one win, one draw and one loss in Group C play, losing to Uzbekistan 2-0 in the final match but still squeezing into the knockouts when Lebanon upset Iran 1-0. In the quarterfinals, South Korea eliminated Australia with a 2-1 victory in their best performance of the tournament so far.
Lee Kyung-soo said South Korea did a better job taking shots from dangerous areas and using space behind the defense against Australia.
"Our players have been doing a better job executing our plans as the tournament has progressed," he said.
In a message relayed by the Korea Football Association, Lee Min-sung said South Korea will try to build on the positive momentum from the quarterfinal victory.
"We will try to capitalize on our strengths as a team," the head coach added.
Defender Lee Hyun-yong also voiced confidence that South Korea can get the better of Japan.
"They say we can't afford to lose to Japan even in the game of rock, paper and scissors," he said. "Their players have some great individual skills, but if we play together as a team, I think we can score two or three goals against them."
This is South Korea's first appearance in the last four at this AFC tournament since 2020, when they won the title over Saudi Arabia.
