South Korea down Jordan to remain unbeaten in World Cup qualifying

By Reuters October 10, 2024 | 06:09 pm PT

South Korea's In-Beom Hwang in action with Jordan's Noor Al Rawabdeh and Mohammed Abu Dahab in a World Cup qualifying game on Oct. 10, 2024. Photo by Reuters

South Korea beat Jordan 2-0 in Amman on Thursday to move top of group B in the third round of Asia's World Cup preliminaries.

Goals from Lee Jae-sung and Oh Hyeong-gu gave underfire coach Hong Myung-bo his second win in a row and lifted the Koreans on to seven points from three matches.

Hong had been booed after Korea's opening 0-0 draw with Palestine in Seoul but back-to-back wins mean the Taeguk Warriors are in a strong position to continue their record of qualifying for every World Cup since 1986.

A header from Lee gave South Korea, missing injured captain Son Heung-min, the lead in the 38th minute and Oh doubled the advantage 23 minutes into the second half when he wrong-footed Yazeed Abulaila to score from inside the area.

In Group A, Uzbekistan were unable to find a way past Iran's defense despite the visitors having only 10 players for the final 35 minutes of their top-of-the-table clash as they played out a 0-0 draw in Tashkent.

Defender Saleh Hardani was shown a red card 10 minutes into the second half for a dangerous tackle on Uzbekistan captain Eldor Shomurodov.

The top two in each group advance automatically to the World Cup while the third and fourth-placed sides go into another round of preliminaries.