Jordan play Malta in friendly

AMMAN — Jordan play Malta in a friendly on Wednesday as part of their final training camp ahead of their match against Kyrgyzstan on November 17 in the return leg Group B qualifiers of the 2018 World Cup, doubling as part of the qualification for 2019 Asian Cup.

The squad is a on a high note after they scored two consecutive wins and beat Asian champs Australia 2-0 and Tajikistan 3-0 in the last two qualifiers. 

“We aim to come back home with positive results. We already have four wins and one draw. We need to maintain our lead and secure qualification to the next round,” Jordan’s head coach Paul Put said as the team regrouped after arriving in Turkey for the training camp.

Jordan now leads the group after beating Tajikistan 3-1, Bangladesh 4-0 and a disappointing 0-0 draw with Kyrgyzstan. 40 teams are playing home and away in a round-robin format in the current second qualifying round which runs until March 2016 

After the two wins and a 3-0 defeat of Iraq in a friendly, Jordan went up 17 spots to 82nd in the latest FIFA World Rankings this week — its biggest leap in a year.

Jordan had the most memorable World Cup qualifying journey in 2013 when they lost a possible chance to play at the World Cup for the first time when they advanced to play then world’s 6th ranked Uruguay in an intercontinental qualifying tie for a place in the 2014 World Cup. They 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 and 2015, Jordan again reached the quarter-finals.