South Korea's national soccer team coach Guus Hiddink, right, speaks with Kim Tae Young, left, during a team training session at the Seoul World Cup stadium, South Korea, Monday. (AP/Aris Messinis)

SEOUL (AP) - Guus Hiddink strides across the training field barking orders at his players. "You. What are you doing?" or "You. Shut Up!" The directions echo across an empty stadium.

This is where 55-year-old Dutchman Hiddink does his best work. When the Seoul stadium is filled with 65,000 screaming Red Devils fans for the World Cup semifinal, he'll leave it to the squad he calls his "young dogs" to do what they're trained to do.

So far this method has paid off. South Korea, 0-10-4 at five previous trips to the World Cup finals, is 4-0-1 in the tournament it's co-hosting with Japan.

Consecutive wins over Portugal, Italy and Spain - all favourites at different stages to lift the Cup - have given the South Koreans huge confidence ahead of Tuesday's showdown with three time champion Germany (CBC, 7:30 a.m. EDT live; TSN, Wednesday 3:30 a.m. EDT delayed).

The winner advances to Sunday's championship match at Yokohama, Japan, against the winner of the Brazil-Turkey semifinal.

Hiddink thinks two more wins are possible.

His coaching techniques combine his need to be direct to get his point across in a language that isn't native to himself or his players, and his experience in the big league.

Apart from Dutch, he speaks fluent Spanish and English, but gives his orders in English, which is more familiar to his players.

A lot of it is translated by Korean coaching staff for those who don't understand, but the gist isn't hard to follow.

Hiddink took the Netherlands to the 1998 World Cup semifinals in France and so becomes the first coach to lead two different countries to the semifinals in soccer's showcase event.

The secret is harnessing the strengths of his team - speed, enthusiasm and eagerness to listen to him - and pinpoint the weaknesses in his rivals which, until now, has been overconfidence.

His coaching stint in Asia might have helped herald a shift in soccer's world order, something totally unexpected a month ago.

With work keeping him away from his family for long periods and bad knees from his playing days requiring surgery last year, rumours circulated that he wouldn't return to Korea. He did return, on crutches.

Swollen looking knees have since earned him the nickname "Elephant Legs" among fans, so he's not the only one using animal analogies.

But responding to questions about his apparent lack of flexibility, Hiddink remarked that it didn't affect his reasoning.

"Yes, in the legs, that's true," he said. "I make up for that with flexibility in the mind."

In the 18 months since taking over the national team, Hiddink has changed from a name to be feared to being a national hero.

During France '98, Hiddink's Dutch team thrashed South Korea 5-0, prompting the firing of South Korean coach Cha Bum-kun.

Impressed by his record, including league and European titles with Dutch powerhouse PSV Eindhoven and stints with Real Madrid, Betis and Valencia in the Spanish league, the Korean Football Association lured him to Asia.

Hiddink agreed to a reported annual salary of $1.5 million Cdn and an unspecified "bonus" for reaching the second round.

The bonus will be healthier now. He's been offered a free villa on Korea's southern resort island of Jeju, free flights with the flag carrier, cash bonuses and will probably have streets named and statues erected in his honoyr.

The situation didn't look so promising six months out. In his first 17 matches in charge, South Korea was 8-4-5, including 5-0 losses to France and the Czech Republic.

The pendulum started to swing in World Cup tuneups, including a 4-1 thrashing of Scotland, a 1-1 tie with England and a narrow 3-2 loss to defending World Cup champion France.

Few dared to expect the Koreans to become the seventh host to win a World Cup but with Hiddink's help, that attitude is fast changing.