“Korea? Asian Cup, 2-0!” This is a common reaction from local Jordanian journalists when they encounter Korean reporters. Their confidence to say 'Korea will win unconditionally' always comes from the 'Asian Cup victory'.

The Korean national soccer team, led by head coach Hong Myung-bo, held its last official training session before the tournament yesterday (Sept. 9) for one hour from 5 p.m. local time. The first 15 minutes of the training session was open to the media, with about 20 local Jordanian journalists competing to get the first look.

Excluding other journalists who arrived in Jordan late the night before the game via chartered flight, there were only three Korean journalists who attended the training session and the official press conference. The interest of the Jordanian reporters went beyond the Korean team's training and turned to the Korean reporters' thoughts on the upcoming match. One Jordanian broadcaster requested interviews with all three Korean reporters.

KBS decided to do the same to get the thoughts of a local Jordanian journalist. Ahmad Khalileh, who introduced himself as a sports commentator and broadcast journalist, was a reporter for the Middle East Broadcasting Center (MBC) Jordan, 파워볼실시간 the largest broadcaster in the Middle East and North Africa region. He had been to South Korea 10 years ago to cover the Incheon Asian Games and even remembered that Hong Myung-bo played for South Korea in the 2002 World Cup.

But when asked specifically which team he thought would win, he said, “Jordan, of course.” “It doesn't matter who scores the goal, we just need to win,” he said, laughing heartily at the predicted score of 1-0.

Even without Son Heung-min, he also recognized that South Korea has a lot of famous players, many of whom play in Europe. “I'm keeping an eye on a player who plays for Mainz (Lee Jae-sung),” he said, ”I don't know his name, but Jordan said he's keeping a close eye on the number six (Hwang In-beom).”

When the Korean team's training session was over, I asked when the Jordanian team would train, and was told that they had already practiced before the Korean team. Normally, the official training session the day before a match is open to all media outlets, home and away, but it seemed like Jordan was intentionally keeping the Korean media out of the loop.

Ahmad, who also watched the Jordanian players train, drew a line in the sand: “Altamari didn't show up in training, and he won't be available tomorrow.” The ace, dubbed the “Jordanian Messi,” was included in the October A-Match squad despite suffering a torn ankle ligament during a match against Oman earlier this month, leaving South Korea on edge as to whether he would be available.

When asked why coach Jamal Selami included Altamari in the roster, he analyzed, “At the time of the roster announcement, he may have thought he had a chance to recover from the injury at this point, or he may have been looking ahead to the Oman game on the 15th, if not the Korea game right away.”

Yazan Alnaimat, who suffered a fractured rib around the same time as Altamari, was able to participate in official team training yesterday. “In his case, he was called up to the national team after his club confirmed that he had recovered from the injury,” Ahmad said.

Altamari's injury may be welcome news for a team that was brought to its knees by Jordan's “counter-attacking football” at the Asian Cup, but they cannot afford to let their guard down. If the shocking 0-0 draw against Palestine and the frustrating 0-0 draw against Oman before Son Heung-min's goal late in the second half are any indication, it's time for more than just a Plan B to be on top of their game if they want to take on the 'big boys'.