Socceroos coach loves battling from the trenches

Ange Postecoglou knows it sounds perverse, but he loves trenches more than the parade ground.

He loves the downs, as much as the ups.

He loves it when people write him off, rather than praise.

"Rollercoasters go up and down, that's why they're exciting," Postecoglou said on Friday.

"And it's the same thing with football - and I enjoy it."

The Asian Cup final against South Korea on Saturday night offers rich rewards - but glitz and glamour isn't Postecoglou's style.

"As perverse as it may sound, I enjoyed the bit before this," he said of a period which returned just two wins his initial dozen games as Australian coach.

"Where you're in the trenches and no-one can see what you're doing and it's really hard and everyone is writing you off - that is the bit I enjoy.

"So this kind of bit is more for the players and everyone else to get the rewards."

Postecoglou takes a perfect record in finals into the Asian Cup decider: six grand finals, six wins.

"Some people say I'm just lucky, mate," he said.

He's won as a player, an NSL coach and an A-League coach.

"Ninety per cent of my football has been in this country and I'm used to finals and I love finals, so I kind of like this whole build-up to a big game," Postecoglou said.

"The whole thing with finals is there is nothing you can do in the last three or four days to get them [players] up for it," he said.

That's why Postecoglou's coaching has always been deliberately edgy.

"You're trying to prepare players well before the event by making sure that training intensity is always high, it's always a competitive environment within the group," he said.

"There's always an edge to everything we do so that when they get to that final step the pressure doesn't become anything that they're not used to.

"And certainly I have felt like that in Australia, when I was coaching at club level, there was always an edge to everything I did - even sometimes to a ridiculous extent during the year.

"Because I figure if you get to a final then I want these guys to be ready, battle-hardened, before you get to that actual point."

Now the Socceroos have reached that point, Postecoglou said the Asian Cup had whizzed by. Asked if he'd been able to switch off during the tournament, he replied: "Nah, not really, mate.

"I'm not that interesting a person anyway in my normal life that I do much more than footy," he said.

"I have got an understanding family. And I love it anyway, so it's not like I need to switch off."

Nor does he need to dwell on the prospects of an Australian win.

Many would trumpet a title as proof Australia are kings of Asian football.

But not Postecoglou, whose main goal was to challenge on the world stage.

"It just shows we're improving in our region," he said.

"But I'm not a big one on that just titles alone - I think there's more to it than that.

"It's the same with rankings. What do they mean?

"To me, it's what you see that is more important.

"How we're playing and who we're doing it against, how much we dominate a game of football, how much we impose ourselves in a game, is a hell of a bigger vibe to me." AAP