South Korea football coach Uli Stielike said Friday he will try to improve the team's performance away from home after suffering a painful defeat to China in the final Asian qualifying round for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

South Korea, ranked 40th in the FIFA rankings, fell 1-0 to 86th-ranked China at Helong Stadium in Changsha, China's Hunan Province, on Thursday. In the final regional qualification, South Korea are in Group A, along with Iran, Uzbekistan, Syria, China and Qatar. 

With four matches remaining, South Korea are in second place with 10 points after collecting three wins, one draw and two losses. They are four points behind the group leaders Iran.

Only the top two nations in the group earn automatic berths to the 2018 World Cup, while the third-place team must go through playoff rounds to enter the world football's showpiece event. South Korea, however, are not in a safe position as Uzbekistan are only one point behind, while Syria are chasing them with eight points.

South Korea have yet to score goals away from home and are still winless outside their soil in the final round. Stielike said he will analyze why his team performs poorly in away matches.

"The statistics show that we're not good in away matches, so I can't deny that," the coach said at the National Football Center in Paju, north of Seoul. "I think our players feel too much pressure when playing outside home. It's not matter of their physique or technique, but I think it's a mentality issue."

Stielike said the best solution to solve that problem is collecting victories. South Korea will next host 95th-ranked Syria in Seoul on Tuesday.

"There's no other solution to make improvements, but to win," he said. "Having two losses in the final round is not a satisfying result. But we still have matches and I believe these situations will turn into positive ones in the future."

After the match against China, Stielike was criticized by football fans here for lacking tactical acumen on both ends of the pitch. The German said he is considering changing tactics.

"I think we need to play more aggressively," he said. "But this doesn't mean we just have to move forward. We need to take advantage of our ball possession, execute well and make sure we can finish."

Against China, South Korea played without Tottenham Hotspur forward Son Heung-min because he was suspended for yellow card accumulation. The 24-year-old is now available against Syria, but at the same time, South Korea will miss FC Augsburg forward Ji Dong-won, who picked up his second yellow card in this qualifying round in China.

"Son is a great player, but there are some matches that we struggled even with him," Stielike said. "It's still a good thing that he is back with us, but if he can't get the ball, his return is meaningless. When attacking, we need to think as a team."

Another defeat in the final round could ruin the Taeguk Warriors' dream to make their ninth straight appearance at the World Cup, which also would mean exit of Stielike.

Incidentally, Stielike, who was hired in September 2014, became the longest-tenured South Korea men's football head coach Friday, having served on the job for two years and 182 days. He surpassed Huh Jung-moo, who previously led South Korea to the round of 16 at the 2010 World Cup.

"I've been working in the football community for more than 40 years and I know how difficult to serve as a coach," he said. "I know there are talks about my position, but I'm not going to think about that right now. My only focus is to go to the World Cup with this team."  (Yonhap)