U-19 girls football team prepares for Asian qualifiers

AMMAN —  The U-19 women’s team is now gearing up to host Group A Asian qualifiers for the Asian Football Confederation U-19 Women’s Championship in 2015.

The team lost 2-0 to Amman Club this week and earlier drew its U-16 counterpart 1-1 in two matches. Following disappointing results of the U-16 as well as women’s senior teams, the U-19 squad will be under heavy scrutiny at home.

The team will play Lebanon, India and Uzbekistan in qualifiers in Amman from November 3-9 with the hope of qualifying for the second time after Jordan was the first Arab team to play in the 3rd AFC U-19 Women’s Championship finals in 2007. 

Fourteen teams will contest the qualifiers in four groups for four slots to the final, with the group leaders moving to the 2015 AFC U-19 Championship, which will be the 8th edition of the tournament. The top three teams qualify for the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup. 

 “We are preparing according to a set plan and we will give it our best. We have had many obstacles, but we are trying to overcome them,” coach Khader Eid was quoted by the local media as saying following this week’s friendly.

This week, the U-16 girls football team returned home after failing to grab the sole qualifying berth from Group B Asian qualifiers for the 2015 AFC Under-16 Women’s Championship. Jordan only managed one win — 8-1 over the UAE. They lost to India (6-3), Iran (6-1) and Bangladesh (1-0). Jordan had qualified to the AFC U-16 Women’s Championship once in 2013. 

Earlier this year, the senior women’s team exited Round 1 of the Asian Games, tying Taiwan 2-2, losing to China 5-0 and suffering a crushing 12-0 defeat to Japan. Similarly, they exited the first round of their first AFC Women’s 2014 Asian Cup where they were the only Arab team to have ever qualified.

Jordan will host the 2016 U-17 Women’s World Cup and is now gearing up to implement executive plans to prepare four stadiums as well as 16 practice fields. Jordan beat bids from Uruguay, South Africa, Ireland and Bahrain. 

The Kingdom dropped four spots to 57th in the lastest FIFA Rankings but is still the top ranked Arab team and 12th ranked Asian team. Jordan won the West Asian title twice in 2005 and 2007, conceded to the UAE in 2010 and 2012 and regained it in 2014 as Iran, Lebanon, as well as, two-time champs and titleholders UAE missed the event.