Jordan hosts South Korea in key World Cup qualification match

AMMAN — The Jordanian national team, "The Nashama",  is set to face South Korea as part of the Asian World Cup qualifiers, with the match to be played at the Amman International Stadium on Thursday.

The Nashama enters the match after a decent performance in the qualifiers, where they gained points that put them on the top of the group, ahead of South Korea and Iraq on goal difference.

 Coach Jamal Salami spoke to local press about the match, saying it is as important as the rest of the qualifying games in the group.

Salami's list for the match includes 28 players between international and local players, with new names such as Ibrahim Sabra, Mohannad Samarin and Amer Jamous, in addition to Ahmed Ersan, who returned to the squad after his noticeable performance in the recent weeks.

Separately, Moussa Tamari and Yazan Nueimat's chances of starting the match have decreased due to their lack of physical readiness, as Tamari deals with a torn ankle that caused him to miss his team Montpellier's last match against Stade Reims.  Nueimat, who suffered a rib fracture a few weeks ago is participating in Amman, with indications that he may start from the bench line.

As for South Korea, coach Hong Myung-bo described the match as a "final" like the rest of the matches in the group.

Korean press said that South Korea will be without their captain and key player Heung-min Son, who sustained a hamstring injury with Tottenham against Qarabag in the Europa League.

Both teams are unbeaten in their last six matches as the last loss of the South Korean team was against Jordan at the Asian cup and the last loss of the Jordanian team was against Qatar in the final of the Asian Cup.

This is the fourth match between the two teams, as the South Korean team won one game and drew one, while on the last occasion they met, Jordan won 2-0.