Women’s football team regroups

AMMAN  — The women’s national football team regrouped on Sunday to begin preparations for Round 2 Asian qualifiers — the second phase of the qualifying journey to the 2016 Summer Olympics football tournament — set for September.

Jordan moved to Round 2 after topping Asian Group B qualifiers when it beat Uzbekistan 2-0, Hong Kong 1-0 and Palestine 6-0. The Jordan Football Association is still awaiting confirmation of the venue of Round 2 where the Kingdom will join other group leaders Myanmar, Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand following which the top team will move to Round 3 to play the top five seeded teams — Japan, Australia, South Korea, North Korea and China – which eventually qualifies the top two to represent Asia at the Olympic Games.

It will be Jordan’s second time at the qualifiers after the 2012 London Olympic qualifiers when it advanced to Round 2. 

Jordan last went up two spots to 54th in FIFA Rankings leading all Arab teams and taking 11th spot in the Asian continent ahead of Japan, North Korea, Australia, China, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Chinese Taipei, Myanmar and Uzbekistan.

Team officials hope the squad will make up for a disappointing 2014 season when the senior women’s team exited Round 1 of the 2014 Asian Games and similarly exited the Round 1 of their first AFC 2014 Women’s Asian Cup where it was also the only Arab team that has ever qualified. The squad is reigning West Asian champs after winning the title with Iran, Lebanon and the UAE missing the event last year.

Last month, Jordan retained the 3rd AFC U-14 Girls Regional Championship for West Asia, for the third consecutive year.

In 2015, the U-19 team failed to repeat its 2007 qualification to the AFC U-19 Women’s Championship which eventually qualifies the top three teams to the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup. The U-16 team also failed to qualify to the 2015 AFC U-16 Women’s Championship after qualifying in 2013. 

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