Doha: Salman Shareeda, a 59-year-old Bahraini, is the only home coach among the five Gulf countries here in the Asian Cup.

And he'll be looking to chalk out a win over the mighty South Koreans, and to better hosts Qatar and Gulf Cup champions Kuwait who lost their opening matches.

Shareeda, who has also coached Pakistan, was named to lead his country after Josef Hickersberger decided to rejoin Abu Dhabi club Al Wahda and he has a huge task on his hands.

The favourites

Shareeda, speaking at yesterday's pre-match press conference ahead of Bahrain's match against South Korea, said: "We are aware that our group rivals South Korea and Australia have participated in the last World Cup and performed well. So we can say, on paper they are the favourites".

"Having said that, the motivation in the Bahrain team is high and we want to prove ourselves at this level, against such top teams. We should also not forget the Indian team," he said commenting on the group.

"We are looking forward to a big tournament here. In our previous Asian Cup participation in 2004, we finished fourth. Our preparations have been satisfactory, despite a few injuries," the Bahraini coach said.

Regain supremacy

South Korea, who won the Asian Cup in 1956 and 1960 are looking to regain their supremacy at the continental level. Third in the last edition in 2007, Korean coach Cho Kwang-rae said his team were ready after players joined the national team from internal club duties.

"As everybody knows, the first match is the most important match. We had our preparations in Abu Dhabi and we played two friendly matches, one against Syria and the other against Al Jazira. I am confident the team will play a good match against Bahrain," he said.

He admitted that he did have problems getting players such as Park Ji-sung of Manchester United and the others to join the national team camp.