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by Mark Szczuka in Sydney
76,000 fans saw Australia win the 16th Asian Cup Final on Saturday 31st January in Stadium Australia in Sydney. It was the Socceroos’ 3rd tournament following their move to the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) in 2006 from the OCF (Oceania Football Confederation) and the first time a nation has won two different confederation tournaments.
South Korea came to the final having kept their opponents scoreless since they arrived in Australia. That was not to last.
Australia took the lead through a goal from Swindon Town midfielder Massimo Luongo just moments before half-time to give a massive lift to the home crowd. Everything was then looking good for the Aussies until the 91st minute when unbelievably Son Heung-min scored the equaliser for South Korea.
Australia regrouped and James Troisi managed to secure the winner for them in the 15th minute of extra-time. It was sweet revenge for Australia who lost their group game by a single goal to South Korea two weeks earlier in Brisbane.
The win sees Australia qualify to play in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia. Australia will also hope to defend their title at the next Asian Cup in 2019, the venue for which will be announced in March 2015 from the short-list of Iran and United Arab Emirates.
That tournament will expand from the current 16 teams to 24. Iran or UAE will be looking to build on the success of Australia which managed to increase the total attendances at the matches from 420k, in the previous tournament in 2011 in Qatar, to 650k.
Also See: Iran meet Iraq (report and gallery)
