Jordan plays Tajikistan starting Asian, World Cup qualifying journey

AMMAN — Jordan's national football team plays Tajikistan  in Dushanbe, Tajikistan on Thursday in their first Group B qualifier for the 2018 World Cup in Russia doubling as part of the qualification for 2019 Asian Cup as well.

Jordan is set to play Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan and Australia in Group B as they seek to advance in both competitions with 40 teams playing home and away in a round, robin format in the second qualifying round which runs until March 2016. The competing nations, divided into eight groups of five, will battle for places in the final qualifying round and also for Asian Cup berths.

The four best runners-up across all groups will advance to the third round and Asian Cup. The remaining four runners-up will advance to the Asian Cup qualifying third round. The four best fourth-placed teams across all groups will advance to the Asian Cup qualifying third round. The remaining four fourth-placed teams will advance to the Asian Cup qualifying play-off round. 

The seeding was based on the latest edition of FIFA World Rankings, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, China and Iraq were the top seeds and avoided playing against each other. Six lowest ranked teams played Round 1 and advanced — India, Bhutan, Taiwan, Cambodia, Yemen and Timor-Leste.

The national team is now lead by Jordanian Coach Ahmad Abdul Qader who took the helm after the  team failed to reach the quarters of the 2015 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup. It was the third time since first taking part in Asian Cup qualifiers in 1972, that Jordan reached the competition finals. The pinnacle was at the 2004 Asian Cup, when it lost to Japan in the quarter-finals and jumped to the best ever FIFA rank of 37th in August that year. In 2011, Jordan again reached the quarter-finals.

Jordan is now at 103rd in the latest FIFA rankings and is 12th among Asian teams.