Jordan up 17 spots in FIFA rankings

By Aline Bannayan - Nov 07,2015 - Last updated at Nov 07,2015

AMMAN — As Jordan readies to play Malta in a friendly this week, the squad had its biggest leap in a year, going up 17 spots to 82nd in the latest FIFA World Rankings on the weekend.

The jump came after the national team scored two consecutive wins in Group B qualifiers of the 2018 World Cup, doubling as part of the qualification for 2019 Asian Cup. Jordan beat Asian champs Australia 2-0 and Tajikistan 3-0, after they beat Iraq in a friendly 3-0. The squad will next have training camp ahead of their match against Kyrgyzstan on November 17 in the return leg.

Forty teams are playing home and away in a round-robin format in the current second qualifying round which runs until March 2016. Jordan now leads the group after they earlier beat Tajikistan 3-1, scored a 4-0 win over lowly Bangladesh and were held to a disappointing 0-0 draw by Kyrgyzstan.

Belgium took over the World top 10 after they went up two spots and lead Germany, Argentina, Portugal, Chile, Spain, Columbia, Brazil, England and Austria.

Jordan went up to 8th in Asia trailing Iran (43), South Korea (48), Japan (50), Australia (60), the UAE (67), Uzbekistan (71) and Saudi Arabia (80).

Jordan had the most memorable World Cup qualifying journey in 2013 when it lost a possible chance to play at the World Cup for the first time when it advanced to play then World’s 6th ranked Uruguay in an intercontinental qualifying tie for a place in the 2014 World Cup. It lost the home game 5-0 and held the former World Cup champs 0-0 in the away match. Jordan had never reached that far in World Cup qualifying since taking part in the qualifiers in 1985. Round 3 had been the furthest Jordan reached in the past seven times in qualifiers since 1986.

In the Asian Cup, Jordan reached the championship three times since first taking part in qualifiers in 1972: the pinnacle was at the 13th Asian Cup, when they lost to Japan in the quarter-finals and jumped to the best ever FIFA rank of 37th in August 2004. In 2011 Jordan again reached the quarter-finals.

Rate