WORLD CUP 2002/Germany v South Korea Seoul: (Today, 12.30): This is the stage that the South Koreans built but never dreamed of appearing on. When the building frenzy for the World Cup began Korean officials spurned Seoul's Olympic Stadium as a leftover from the 1988 Summer Olympics and instead spent $185 million on building the Seoul World Cup Stadium.

They put in a new subway line to serve the 65,000-seat cathedral and themed its lines on the traditional Korean flying kite.

A World Cup semi-final, in the heart of downtown Seoul, a nation on the brink of delirium, the sense of nationalistic pride pricked by unfair accusations of corrupt refereeing (the experience of Swiss referee Urs Meier should put an end to that tonight). Can the Koreans cope with it all?

The Koreans' mental ability has been a key in their success so far. Guus Hiddink has spoken recently about the fact that they tended to get too excited on the field and not excited enough off it. Culturally the players are programmed to look for leaders and to work off them. Hiddink has had to inculcate the benefits of initiative and individuality as well as teaching players to express pleasure or disappointment in success or defeat as appropriate. Stoicism is the traditional Korean response to either. Tonight they may have to fall back on that, and the fact that they have had so little time to think since their quarter-final may be a help.

The Germans represent a different proposition to anything the Koreans have faced so far. The Spanish, perennial under-achievers, were a little unlucky but like the Italians they never hit their full potential in attack and ended up letting the Koreans come at them.

The Germans offer a different bag of tricks. One of the most ordinary German teams ever to have come to a World Cup, they nevertheless meet the cliché about all German teams. They play efficiently and they seldom make mistakes. These qualities are embodied best in their inspirational goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, who has conceded just one goal (to Robbie Keane) in these championships and is a contender for player of the tournament.

In the German quarter-final performance against the USA, the Koreans will find their best hope. The Koreans have played the Americans several times in the last year, including in the group stages of this World Cup, and would class themselves at least as good a footballing outfit. If it weren't for Kahn, the Americans might be semi-finalists now as they played the more inventive football.

There were times against the Americans when pace, especially that of Landon Donovan, made the Germans look ponderous and rigid and the Koreans will be hopeful that Seol Ki-hyeon and Park Ji-sung in particular will be able to raid at pace.

The Korean fitness levels have been a talking point of this tournament and Hiddink required all players, even the couple of foreign-based ones, to undergo specific fitness and strength tests before becoming eligible for the panel. The local media have been whispering joyfully about their energy being a tribute to the benefits of ginseng.

"Normally it would be an advantage to have an extra day's work before the semi- final," German coach Rudi Voller said this weekend. "But when I look at South Korea I feel they would happily play us whenever."

The Koreans also enjoy advantages of fluidity and style. The high quality of their passing game has surprised many but Hiddink's origins are in total football and he believes that giving the ball away is the cardinal sin of the game.

The Koreans have exhibited, even at previous disastrous excursions to the World Cup, that technique and talent have never been a problem. Muscle and conviction are what they lack.

Tonight they will not want for the former but they may wish that events had taken a different turn in the life of Miroslav Klose, the German striker with five headed goals to his credit so far in this tournament. Born in Opole, Poland, of Polish parents and resident there till he was nine, Klose was approached by the Poles over a year ago to line out for them. Had he accepted, the Koreans would have faced him in the opening game of the tournament. Instead they must cope with him tonight.

Klose has the correct attitude to say the least. He is undaunted by the prospect of playing the Koreans in their own yard.

"They are riding this great euphoria and it is fun to be playing them. The fans will carry them. They are like bees swarming all over you. We must not under-estimate them. They have shown they can play football."

And he brings his extraordinary pace and ability. Having scored as a late sub in the qualifier against Albania, he has been the greatest success of the Voller era and along with the creative but not quite 100 per cent ready Michael Ballack, is the mainstay of German hope outfield tonight. He represents a target for an imaginatively challenged midfield (Ballack excepted) which is shorn in all likelihood of the injured Dieter Hamman.

The Koreans, who will have fresh memories of the panic which big Christian Vieiri sowed in their defence, will look to the experience of Hong Myung-bo to shepherd Klose into anonymity.

Beside Klose the Germans are unlikely to field the donkeyish Carsten Jancker, opting for the skilful Oliver Neuville instead.

Any lingering self-doubt has gone now. Korea are one game away from completing the most remarkable journey football has ever seen. Every romantic in the world will want them to do it, but the Germans have never been romantics.

The German progress has been almost as charmed as the Koreans. Deprived of a handful of their better players, they have discovered players of the calibre of Klose and Christoph Metzelder and just watched them grow. Anything they achieve tonight is a bonus. The pressure is off for a change.

This is their 10th World Cup semi-final and in that history there is a handed down lore of how to handle big tournaments and moments like this. The Koreans have endured two bouts of extra time in the last week and their fitness edge may be diminished. That and German's muscle may be enough to make them the unprettiest finalists since the team Rudi Voller himself played on.