Korea to Face Jordan’s Dense Defense

“Break through the wall of Jordan’s dense defense”

Korea’s national soccer team will have its first game in the 2004 Asian Cup with Jordan, a league match in the B group, at 7:30 this evening in the Shandong Sports Center Stadium in Jinan, China. The game will be broadcast live by SBS.

Korea is trying to win back the top after 44 years since the second Asian Cup in 1960. Jordan is the first hurdle Korea must leap. Jordan is ranked 40th in the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), behind 20th-ranked Korea.

Jordan has already declared it will defeat Korea using the same strategy as Greece, who won the 2004 UEFA European Championship through “defense first and attack later.” Jordan won the 2004 German World Cup Regional Competition, 1-0, by not missing a one-time gold opportunity it had after playing an unfavorable game throughout.

Korean Coach Johannes Bonfrere is expected to prepare his team for Jordan’s counterattack by applying the 3-5-2 formation strategy that sets Kim Tae-young, Lee Min-sung and Choi Jin-chul in the field and Lee Dong-gook and Ahn Jung-hwan as two tops.

“The first game is always hard,” said Bonfrere. “Korea or Jordan, whoever loses will be in a disadvantageous position in future games. I have seen the Jordanian team playing and have done a video analysis of the team.”

Meanwhile, it is not yet known whether Park Ji-sung, who injured his left ankle last Wednesday in the evaluation game with Trinidad, will play in the game. If he cannot, Chung Kyung-ho is expected to replace him.

Jong-Koo Yang yjongk@donga.com