South Korean soccer club Ulsan Hyundai Tigers will chase their first Asian club championship this weekend against a Saudi Arabian rival.

The K-League’s Ulsan will host Al Ahli in the final of the Asian Football Confederation Champions League at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Munsu Stadium, some 410 kilometers south of Seoul.

Ulsan clinched the berth in the final by eliminating Bunyodkor of Uzbekistan in the semifinals. Ulsan is the fourth consecutive K-League club to reach the AFC final.

Al Ahli squeezed past fellow Saudi Arabian club, Al Ittihad, in the semis.

This will be the maiden AFC final appearance for Ulsan in its third try. Al Ahli was the runner-up to the South Korean team Daewoo Royals in 1986, when the tournament was called the Asian Club Championship.

Ulsan has remained undefeated in its 11 AFC matches this year, with nine wins and two draws. Kim Ho-gon, the team’s head coach, said he has told his players to put the past record behind them and to focus on the one remaining game.

“They should all forget about those 11 games,” he said. “They should think only about winning this one upcoming match.”

Ulsan has been riding on the coattails of its two offensive stars: Kim Shin-wook and Lee Keun-ho. The forwards have combined for 10 of the team’s 24 goals in the AFC competition, and both have scored in each of Ulsan’s last three matches, all victories.

Both players have had demanding schedules throughout the Champions League, as they have also represented South Korea in FIFA World Cup qualifying matches at home and on the road. The talented Ulsan team also has a couple of other national team fixtures, such as defensive leader Kwak Tae-hwi and goalkeeper Kim Young-kwang. 

(Yonhap News)