Der Kaiser, as Beckenbauer is known in his native country, was a marvellous player who developed the concept of the libero, or free defender who played as a sweeper at the back but also stepped forward into midfield to initiate attacks and creative moves.

Beckenbauer is one of only two men in the history of football to have both won the World Cup as a player (when he captained Die Nationallmanschaft to victory in 1974) and coached his country to the highest pinnacle when he led West Germany in 1990. Only Brazil's Mario Zagallo, who won with the Selecao as a player in 1958 and 1962 and coached the great Brazilian team in 1970 has also achieved that feat.

Stielike has not got close to that – his West German team was beaten 3-1 by Italy in the 1982 final and he has never coached the national team during his career as a coach.  But Littbarski remembers playing with Stielike (who spent five years at Borussia Moenchengladbach and eight at Real Madrid in his playing days) as a top-flight defender who was not only a disciplined and determined stopper but a creative influence from deep.

"As a player he was very serious and rarely smiled. He pushed everyone hard, sometimes too hard!", said Littbarski, who was part of Beckenbauer's World Cup winning side in 1990 as well as the two West German squads that lost the final in 1982 and then to Argentina in 1986.

"He had high expectations and put his teammates under pressure and was demanding a lot from each of them. But he was a great leader and he hated losing. He was a great player, very organised and he not only had the qualities of a great defender but he could play out and build up attacks from the back. He was something like Beckenbauer in passing and playing the ball forward."

Littbarski recalls not so much the 1982 World Cup final, which Germany lost, but the semi he and Stielike played in together that was one of the most controversial and dramatic games in World Cup history.

These days it is most remembered for the horrific foul that German goalkeeper Harald "Toni" Schumacher committed on French player Patrick Battiston, which left the French defender in a coma with a broken vertebra and broken teeth and still causes people to hold their heads in horror when they see it replayed.

But it was an extraordinary game, Schumacher's appalling assault aside. The game finished 1-1, and in extra time the French, who were the team all the neutrals loved that year because of their flair and panache, took a 3-1 lead and looked set for a place in the final. But the Germans came back and levelled at 3-3, taking the game to a shoot-out – the first time a World Cup semi-final had been decided on penalties.

Stielike had the nerve to step forward and take one of the early spot kicks – but his shot was saved: the big defender, a tough, stoic, steely individual, collapsed to his knees, head in hands and tears flowing. Littbarski, who was only 22 at the time and the baby in the side (Stielike was 27 at the time), ran to comfort his teammate.

"That was the biggest memory for me of the games we played together, not the final but the World Cup semi-final with France. We had come from behind in extra time, there was so much tension and when he missed he was very upset, I ran to him and there is the shot of me holding him. It looked a bit strange as I was so young and he was older. But he was very shaken at the time, it was tough for him," said Littbarski, who, despite his youth, calmly slotted his spot kick home in the shoot-out.

Stielike finished his international career two years later and ended up with 42 caps, a good number in an era when international teams did not play anywhere near as many friendlies or lucrative tour games.

South Korea is not the first international team he has coached. After finishing his playing career with Neuchatel Xamax in Switzerland he had a two-year stint in charge of the Swiss national team as well as eight years with Germany's national federation, spending time as assistant coach of the national team and six years in charge of the development program with the under-19, 20 and 21 teams. He also had 18 months in charge of the Ivory Coast national team, taking over after the Elephants had been eliminated from the 2006 World Cup.

The German took the reigns in Seoul after South Korea's disappointing World Cup and has wrought an immediate change in their fortunes. The Taeguk Warriors shipped four goals in one game in Brazil (when they lost 4-2 to Algeria) but have kept five clean sheets in this tournament – testament to Stielike's skills as a defensive organiser.

These days, in the dark suit and tie he wears to press conferences, he looks more like a regional bank manager than one of the top defenders of his generation. But the bespectacled, balding Stielike has made the South Koreans not just difficult to beat. He is also introducing new names and faces, and has taken the team to the final without the services of two key players, Koo Ja-cheol and Lee Chung-yong, who were both injured early in the tournament.

As he prepares for the final, Stielike is not reading too much into Korea's 1-0 win over Australia in a group match early in the tournament when Ange Posteocglou changed his line-up.

"[Mile] Jedinak was injured, [Mathew] Leckie was on the bench, [Tim] Cahill was on the bench, [Robbie] Kruse was on the bench," he said earlier this week.

"We won't play the same Australia ... but we have to be the same Korea."