Korea Republic players during their training session in Kolkata on Friday. Photo by: AFC/Stanley Chou

By Chetan Kulkarni

KOLKATA: Pride will be at stake for Korea Republic when they take on tournament surprise package Jordan in the third-fourth place match of the AFC Youth Championship here at the Salt Lake Stadium on Sunday.

The two-time defending champions, who have also won the title 11 times, went down fighting in the semifinals to Japan in the penalty shootout, dashing their dreams of a grand treble.

The two teams are locking horns for the second time in this edition after the Koreans opened their Group A campaign with a 3-0 thrashing of Jordan, giving the East Asians the psychological advantage on Sunday.

Four players are currently leading the goal-scoring chart of the tournament and two of these are Korea Republic players Shin Young-rok and Shim Young-sung, pointing to the might of the coach Cho Dong-hyun’s team in the goal-scoring department.

“We have played Jordan before in this tournament. It was tough because it was our first game in the event but I hope our players will not be overconfident with the previous result and play their natural game,” said Cho Dong-hyun.

The coach also threw down the gauntlet to his strikers to make up for their poor finishing in the semifinals against Japan despite enjoying numerical superiority for 30 minutes.

“It was very disappointing to lose in the semifinals after having numerical advantage for full 30 minutes of extra-time. We were dominating but our strikers failed to take advantage of the situation,” he said.

The Koreans won all their three Group A matches beating Jordan 3-0, Kyrgyzstan 7-0 and India 3-0 before overcoming newcomers Australia 2-1 in the quarterfinals.

“My boys played quite well till the quarterfinals but it was not the same against Japan. Our style of play is almost similar and a red card to their defender Tomoaki Makino in the 83rd minute could have helped our cause but our played choked at the crucial moments.”

On the other hand, it was a learning experience for the Jan Poulsen-coached Jordan. They lost the opener to Korea Republic 0-3 but bounced back to beat hosts India 3-2 and held Kyrgyzstan goalless to advance into the last eight.

“We have played Korea Republic before in this tournament and we will try to overcome our mistakes tomorrow,” Poulsen said.

The team, playing in the Finals after a gap of 28 years, created history after qualifying for the FIFA U-20 World Cup and has been overwhelmed by the celebrations and compliments from back home.

“It was a surprise for all of us and we did put up a strong fight against DPR Korea in the quarterfinals but unfortunately it was not our day,” Poulsen said.

“Korea Republic are one of the strongest teams in this event and we will try our best to win this game.”

The match starts at 1600 hours local time.