Football squad regroups Sunday

AMMAN — Jordan’s national football squad will regroup this week to play Syria on March 26 and Saudi Arabia on March 30 as the team undergoes a transitional phase and will soon start preparing for upcoming international qualifiers.

These will be the first matches since Jordan exited the first round of the 16th Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup. Jordan’s upcoming long-term agenda will include qualifiers for the 2019 Asian Cup which will be expanded from 16 to 24 teams, with the qualifying process doubling as part of the qualification for the 2018 World Cup.

Coach Ahmad Abdul Qader will now lead the team in the upcoming period after head coach Ray Wilkins departed following Jordan’s failure to repeat its quarter-final Asian Cup qualification in 2004 and 2011.

The line-up will be completed after Wihdat and Jazira play second stage AFC Cup matches this week and pros playing abroad are released from their respective club duties. Abdul Qader noted U-23 players will be excluded this month as they play the Olympic qualifiers.

Both coaches leading the team have an excellent record with age-divisions: Abdul Qader led the U-19 team to Jordan’s best achievement of fourth place and qualification to the U-19 World Cup in 2007 while Islam Diyabat led the U-22 team to a bronze medal finish in the inaugural AFC U-22 Championship after beating South Korea.

At the last Asian Cup earlier this year, Jordan lost 2-0 to defending champions Japan, 1-0 to Iraq and only saved face when substitute striker Hamza Dardour ended an 11-match winless streak and scored four goals in their 5-1 win over Palestine. Jordan dropped four spots to 97th in the lastest FIFA rankings after eliminated from its third Asian Cup. 

The Kingdom’s best performance was at the 13th Asian Cup in 2004 where it lost to Japan in the quarter-finals and jumped to the best ever FIFA rank of 37th. Jordan did not play in the 2007 finals.