South Korea goalkeeper Jo Hyeon-woo needed on-field treatment after making a save with his face to deny Jordan a near-certain goal in their Asian Cup semifinal on Tuesday. Yazan Al-Naimat and Musa Al-Taamari scored second-half goals to help Jordan beat South Korea.
Yazan Al Naimat looked set to fire Jordan ahead shortly before halftime at Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium when weaving his way through the area and stabbing a shot at goal from about five meters out.
But even though he fired past the hands of Jo, he hit the keeper in the face at point blank range. A rebound effort from Noor Al Rawabdeh then came back off the dazed Jo’s heels as he tried to collect himself, and the danger was cleared.
Jo was assessed by South Korea’s medical team and cleared to play on.
Jo was the hero of his team in the round of 16 when he saved two spot kicks as South Korea defeated Saudi Arabia in a penalty shootout.
He was also called upon repeatedly in the first half against Jordan when pushing away earlier efforts from Noor Al Rawabdeh and Al Naimat.
Jordan Through to Final
In the end the result was a stunning upset for Jordan, who are ranked 87th in the world while South Korea are the third-best team in Asia, 64 places above them.
Jordan finally found the breakthrough when Al-Taamari intercepted a poor back pass in midfield and found Al-Naimat with a defence-splitting pass for the forward to chip the ball over the keeper and score his third goal of the tournament.
Al-Taamari had been the busiest player on the pitch and he picked his moment to shine when he made a solo run past a static defence and curled his effort past the keeper to send Jordan’s fans among the 42,850 in the arena into raptures.
South Korea had made a habit of scoring late goals in the tournament but there was no comeback this time as Jordan kept them at bay to book their place in the final, where they will face either Iran or hosts and defending champions Qatar.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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