The slogan "Time for Change” was behind the desk at KFA House in the middle of Seoul on Monday morning. There was also a picture of a smiling national team coach Uli Stielike wishing the country a Merry Christmas.
As they did so, the former Real Madrid midfielder told the press pack that he liked the new slogan.
The last time the Taeguk Warriors, Asia's most successful World Cup team, lifted the continental trophy was back in 1960. The team has not always been as enthusiastic about the competition as it could have. That is not the case any more.
“I don't know how the Koreans played during the last 55 years, but they did not win the Asian Cup,” pointed out the man appointed in September. “So I also think that it is time to change.”
There does seem to be something of a new era and it could be that Stielike has ended the international career of Park Chu-young. That may be a hasty conclusion to draw for a player just 29 but if the ex-Arsenal man can't make the squad of 23 when his two biggest rivals for the main striking spot, Lee Dong-gook and Kim Shin-wook, are unavailable through injury, and he is now playing regularly for Saudi Arabia club Al Shabab, then perhaps he never will.
His place has been taken by the powerful Lee Jung-hyub of newly-promoted army club Sangju Sangmu, the one surprise selection of the 23.
“Calling up Park and not giving Lee a chance would be an easier choice to make,” said Stielike, reinforcing the theme of change. “However, I did the opposite and decided to take the full responsibility for calling up Lee.”
Park's disastrous spell with Arsenal ultimately cost him playing time, form, popularity and ultimately his national team place. It is not quite as simple as that but when he joined the Gunners in 2011, he was perhaps Asia's top striker. Now, he will not even be at the continent's showpiece event when his team looks to be shorter of firepower than ever.
Yet even with his absence, out of all the visitors to Australia, Korea has a genuinely Asian squad. Six are based in the west – Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia, two are active in China, three come from the J.League and six play in Korea.
That leaves six to make the mammoth journey from England and Germany.
The European-based contingent would have been bigger had Queens Park Rangers left-back Yun Suk-young and Hong Jeong-ho, centre-back with FC Augsburg in the Bundesliga, not been struggling for fitness.Ji Dong-won at Borussia Dortmund pays the price for a lack of game time.
The one name to get fans excited and to be asking Santa Claus for an injury-free few weeks is Son Heung-min. The Bayer Leverkusen forward has been arguably Asia's best player in 2014 and has impressed in the Bundesliga, the UEFA Champions League and even at the FIFA World Cup, a tournament that everyone in the rest of Korea is trying to forget.
For Stielike to have a good chance of bringing the AFC Asian Cup to the Land of the Morning Calm for the first time since before the Beatles hit it big, then he is going to have to take care of 'Sonaldo' and think carefully as to where to deploy his greatest weapon.
If Son shines, then the Seoul winter, as well as the absence of Park could all be forgotten. That would be a change all would welcome.