Blockbuster final
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Top-scorers Australia will try to unlock the Asian Cup's stingiest defence on Saturday when they meet South Korea in a blockbuster final between two of the region's heavyweights.
The Socceroos are desperate to win a first Asian title on home soil, but to do so they will have to find a way through a Korean rearguard which has not conceded all tournament.
It could be a case of who blinks first as Australia look to be crowned kings of Asia, after defecting from Oceania in 2006, and South Korea try to end a hoodoo stretching back a staggering 55 years.
Runners-up to Japan in 2011, Australia have hit 12 goals in five games and they will start as slight favourites, despite losing 1-0 to South Korea in the group phase.
Coach Ange Postecoglou opted to rest talisman Tim Cahill for that game in Brisbane and he was robbed of captain Mile Jedinak through injury, but he insisted the result would count for little with the stakes now so high.
"Previous records go out the window," he told reporters on Friday. "It will be the team able to deal with whatever may happen who wins, because finals never run to script."
Cahill has netted three times so far, including a venomous overhead kick in the quarter-final win over China, and is likely to be central to the plot in one of the biggest games in Australia's history.
"It just takes one second for someone to switch off," said the former Everton forward. "Hopefully I can be on point to make it count."
Both teams possess players capable of delivering a knockout blow, with South Korea hoping golden boy Son Heung-Min can weave his magic as they seek to win a first Asian Cup since 1960 having already defied the odds by reaching the final.
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