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AMMAN — Week 4 of the 63rd Jordan Professional League resumes this weekend after a two-week break as the national team regrouped for two friendlies in preparation for the 2015 Asian Cup. Faisali, who are now third, will play former champs Shabab Urdun and second-placed Ramtha play neighbours Ittihad Ramtha on Friday while leaders Wihdat play Hussein Irbid on Saturday. In Week 3, titleholders Wihdat beat Ittihad Ramtha 4-3, Ramtha beat Ahli 2-0 to remain second, Faisali beat Manshieh 1-0 to stay third. Shabab Urdun held Baqaa 0-0, That Ras held Sarih 1-1, Hussein held Jazira 1-1.

AMMAN — Jordan ended its Level 2 participation at the 22nd FIBA Asia U-18 Championship for Women with only one win over Kyrgyzstan (62-52). The team lost to Sri Lanka, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia and Hong Kong. Jordan Basketball Federation officials had hoped the event would be “a platform to jump back and advance the game on the local and regional levels”, It was only last year that after a 20-year break Jordan returned to the Asian women’s competitions taking part in the 3rd FIBA Asia U-16 Championship for Women in Sri Lanka where they finished in 5th spot in Level 2. The results were not as important as the fact that the team was back on the court as the only Arab squad along leading the Asian teams. With the women’s game now having little prominence locally, the national team had not competed on the Asian scene since 1995 when Jordan became the first Arab team to play at the Asian Basketball Confederation Women’s Championship in Japan and the U-18 team competed in its event in 1996 in Thailand where they finished in 8th place.

AMMAN — The national football team is now on break until November 8.

when the team will regroup to play two more friendlies in the final phase of preparations for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) 2015 Asian Cup in Australia.

Jordan hosted Kuwait in two matches this week, losing the first 1-0 and leading 1-0 in the second before the guests tied 1-1. The team also beat the U-23 squad 2-0 as new head coach Ray Wilkins tried to assess the line-up named and amend any gaps in the run-up to the Asian Cup.

Although early to judge, the Kuwaiti trial raised some eyebrows as to the players preparedness and team’s competitive chances. Wilkins was quoted by the local media as saying that options are open for the final line-up and the resumption of the league this weekend will give team officials a chance to recall other players as needed. 

Jordan dropped 13 spots to 69th in the latest FIFA rankings after they held China 1-1, lost to Uzbekistan 2-0 and Columbia 3-0 as the squad kicked off a series of high level friendlies aimed at giving the line-up optimum competitive experience against leading teams ahead of the Asian Cup.

The Kingdom qualified to the 2015 Asian Cup after finishing second in Group A qualifiers behind leaders Oman. They were drawn to play in Group D with 2011 titleholders Japan, Iraq and Palestine.

Wilkins, who left for Manama, Bahrain, to attend the Iraq-Bahrain match said he was not “fully satisfied with the matches against Kuwait”, adding that “the result was not as important as the aim of choosing the best players and achieve our common goals”.

The coach said there was a lot of work to be done and that the team could be well prepared. “We need to instil a new attitude of playing for a win,” was his first observation after watching earlier league matches. 

Jordan is set to host South Korea on November 14 and possibly another team during the upcoming team camp.

They are also set to meet Uzbekistan on December 20 as well as the UAE and Bahrain in Australia ahead of the Asian Cup.

SUZUKA, Japan — Formula One team Marussia has hit back at claims it contributed to Jules Bianchi’s life-threatening crash at the Japanese Grand Prix by urging him to ignore yellow warning flags.

Marussia refuted news reports that Bianchi had been told to ignore the yellow flags and keep racing at full pace in the wet and dim conditions at the race earlier this month, saying the claims were “entirely false”.

The French driver lost control of his car and went off the circuit, hitting a mobile crane that was inside the trackside barriers to collect another car. Bianchi remains in a hospital in Japan in a critical condition with severe head injuries.

“At a time when its driver is critically ill in hospital and the team has made clear its highest priority is consideration for Jules and his family, [Marussia] is distressed to have to respond to deeply upsetting rumours and inaccuracies in respect of the circumstances of Jules’ accident,” the team said in a statement released Wednesday.

Marussia said telemetry data from the car showed Bianchi did slow in the part of the track where marshals were waving yellow flags. Marussia said this data had been provided to the FIA and Charlie Whiting, the race director for F1’s governing body, had examined it and confirmed that Bianchi did reduce speed.

The team also provided to the FIA a full transcript of its radio communication with Bianchi during the race at the Suzuka circuit, and said that transcript showed that the team never made any instruction for him to ignore the yellow flags.

Earlier, Marussia said there had been no improvement in Bianchi’s condition, adding that “a number of medical challenges have needed to be overcome and the situation remains challenging”.

Bianchi’s parents and siblings have been beside his hospital bed since the accident, and his father Philippe said he still fears the worst outcome.

“Every time the phone rings we know it could be the hospital to say Jules is dead,” Philippe Bianchi said in an interview with Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport.

“The doctors have said that it is already a miracle; that nobody has ever survived such a serious accident, but Jules does not give up.

“One day he seems a little better, another a bit worse. The doctors don’t say. The damage in the impact was great, but they don’t know how it will evolve.”

MELBOURNE — Amid the time-worn cliches of “learning curves” and “wake-up calls” murmured by Australia’s downcast players in the wake of their dismal 1-0 loss to Qatar, it took stalwart midfielder Mark Bresciano to cut to the heart of the matter.

“There’s something not right [and] we’ve got to fix it because it is getting close,” the 34-year-old told reporters after Tuesday’s defeat in Doha triggered alarm bells Down Under.

Bresciano was referring to the Asian Cup, which Australia host in three months and where organisers have pinned their hopes on a successful Footballoos campaign to soak up the huge costs of staging the continental showpiece.

After completing a barren Middle Eastern tour, the Australians head off to their respective clubs and some may be grateful to return to their relative anonymity in Europe.

The few heading home to play in the country’s A-League will not be expecting to be mobbed by welcoming fans at local airports.

Following a scoreless draw with United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi on Friday, a match in which forward Tim Cahill’s absence for all but 13 minutes was keenly felt, coach Ange Postecoglou dismissed criticism as: “Heard it all before.”

After the Qatar loss, in which the team’s main strike weapon Cahill started on the pitch, the 49-year-old was not quite so blase.

“I keep saying I’m making these decisions and I’m making them for a reason and that’s probably costing us in terms of performance and in terms of fluency,” he told reporters after his shake-up of the side fell spectacularly flat.

“But it is what it is and I take responsibility because I’m making these decisions.”

A successful coach at club level, Postecoglou took the job from sacked German Holger Osieck a year ago amid much fanfare.

Given a five-year mandate to rebuild a team, he was also granted a free pass to blood new players at the Brazil World Cup and enjoyed a very generous assessment of the team’s first round exit from the finals after three straight losses.

Being beaten by the world’s best is one thing, but losing to Asian minnows is another and Postecoglou now holds an indefensible record of one win from 10 matches this year.

Long fancying themselves masters of their own backyard, Australia is now ranked 84th in the world and ninth in Asia, behind teams like Jordan (69th) and Oman (76th).

Australia plays its final Asian Cup warm-up against reigning champions Japan in Osaka in November and has just over a month to work out how to score goals.

“Not far from panic,” former Australia goalkeeper and television pundit Mark Bosnich commented after the Qatar loss.

Postecoglou maintained a calmer front, dismissing any effect the defeat would have on the Footballoos’ confidence before the Asian Cup.

“No, because I’m kind of manufacturing this,” he said.

“I’m making it as hard as possible, so the players will be fine. They’ll be ready to go.

“We’re putting these challenges to them for a reason and I think in the long run it will be good for us.”

Bresciano, a veteran of three World Cups and with Cahill, one of the last of the Footballoos’ “golden generation”, has long provided laser-sharp delivery and duly torpedoed Postecoglou’s “it’s all part of the plan” defence.

“Personally I think a big improvement [is needed],” he said.

“If we’re going to have any chance of winning, games like tonight we shouldn’t be losing.

“The football in the Gulf region has improved dramatically in recent years. We’re going through this transition with the young boys coming in and maybe the standard has dropped a little bit.”

LONDON — Mercedes are almost ready to let Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg off the leash now that the title-chasing pair have secured the team’s first Formula One constructors’ world championship. Almost, but not quite.

“If you look at the points, we have made a massive step towards the drivers’ title,” said Mercedes motor sport head Toto Wolff after the team’s ninth one-two and 13th win of the season in Sunday’s inaugural Russian Grand Prix.

“So we could be coming into a situation which everybody would love of course, and it’s safe to let them race in the way they want to race.”

Wolff said that for the time being, until it was mathematically certain that the Mercedes drivers could not be overtaken, there remained “an invisible little leash” restraining them.

While there is no question in anyone’s mind that Hamilton or Rosberg will be crowned champion at the end of the season, there is still the slimmest of chances that Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo could do it.

The Australian is 92 points behind Hamilton and 75 adrift of Rosberg with 100 remaining to be won from the last three races. No other driver is in contention.

Ricciardo is the only man other than the Mercedes drivers to have won this season but he would still need three more victories to have any chance and even then it would require the Silver Arrows to draw an unthinkable blank.

Realistically, his chances are likely to be snuffed out at the next race in Austin, Texas, in three weeks’ time.

Double trouble

The one thing Mercedes do not want is to go to Abu Dhabi with Ricciardo still in with a shout and double points — 50 for the winner — available for the first time.

The twist in the tail means Hamilton can take nothing for granted, despite having won more than twice as many races as his teammate. He said he would just focus on trying to win as always.

“Whatever will be, will be,” he told reporters on Sunday night. “For me, it’s important not to put any negative energy or concern out there, and there’s no need to be concerned because I’ve the utmost belief in this team and the car, and I’m in the best form of my life.

“There’s no point thinking ‘What if this happens or that happens, or what happens if he wins?’. There’s no point thinking those things.

“I honestly think that’s the wrong way to look at it. It’s like looking at a glass that’s either half empty or half full. That’s just the wrong approach.”

The 2008 world champion’s triumph in Sochi made him only the fourth driver — after Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and his compatriot Nigel Mansell — to win nine races in a single season.

Rosberg has won four so far, Ricciardo three.

Yet the Briton is still only 17 points clear of the German who has everything to play for.

It is not beyond the realms of possibility for Hamilton to win 11 races this season and still end up without the title if Rosberg finishes second in the next two and then wins in Abu Dhabi with Hamilton suffering a retirement.

For the moment, however, Hamilton is in the form of his life. His victory in Sochi was the fourth in a row for the Briton and he was quickest all weekend.

“I have seen Lewis in such a great state of mind. He is a happy person. He is happy in his life, he is happy in the team,” said Wolff, who made clear he wanted the Briton to stay beyond the end of next year when his contract expires.

“There is so much competition in the team between the drivers but we are still having this team feeling. In the briefings, in our discussions, there is energy. And it’s moving the team forward.

“He [Hamilton] is definitely in a different league since I first met him.”

Bonuses 

Rank and file Mercedes team members are in line for average bonuses of £10,000 ($15,963) each after Hamilton and Rosberg brought home the Formula One constructors’ title.

A team spokesman confirmed all permanent staff members at the Brackley factory in central England would get the payments as part of a company bonus scheme set up at the start of the season.

Red Bull, whose reign as world champions ended at Sunday’s Russian Grand Prix, have paid similar bonuses to their factory staff for the past four years.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Only three months after the Netherlands reached the World Cup semifinals, the team is crumbling.

And Guus Hiddink, the man who guided the team to the 1998 semifinals but only returned as coach of his country’s national team after the last World Cup, is the one being blamed.

“I think Guus Hiddink doesn’t have really a game plan,” former Netherlands midfielder Ronald de Boer, who previously played under Hiddink, told Sky Sports. “With all due respect for Hiddink, he’s 67 years old.”

The Dutch have lost three of four matches since Hiddink took over from Louis van Gaal, including a European Championship qualifier against Iceland on Monday. The 2-0 loss — the first Dutch setback against the island nation in 11 meetings — sparked an outcry against Hiddink, who also led South Korea to the World Cup semifinals in 2002.

Top-selling national daily De Telegraaf said the team was “in a state of decay.”

Despite the qualifying losses to Iceland and the Czech Republic, the Dutch are far from out of the running to qualify for Euro 2016.

The top two teams in each of the nine groups progress automatically, the best third-place team also qualifies automatically, and the other eight can qualify through a play-off. But the losses and poor play are a national headache for a country obsessed by the fortunes of its beloved “Oranje”.

It was only three months ago that euphoria greeted nearly every Dutch performance in Brazil, where Van Gaal’s tactical switches — from dropping the favoured Dutch 4-3-3 system, to swapping goalkeepers for a penalty shoot-out, to playing winger Dirk Kuyt at left back — all seemed to work.

The Netherlands dismantled defending champion Spain 5-1 in its first match and went on to the semifinals, where the team finally lost to Argentina on penalties.

After beating Brazil 3-0 for third place, Van Gaal left for Manchester United — where he also has had a far-from-fantastic start — while Hiddink took over the Dutch national team for the first time since that semifinal run at the 1998 World Cup in France.

In between his two stints with the Netherlands, Hiddink found success just about everywhere he went. Besides his time with South Korea, he guided Australia to the second round of the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

But his golden touch appears to have disappeared this time.

The Dutch team’s defence, which performed far better than most observers expected in Brazil, now looks vulnerable, while the midfield lacks creative spark and the forward line appears overly reliant on Arjen Robben.

Even before Monday’s loss, Hiddink had to clear the air between strikers Robin van Persie and Klaas Jan Huntelaar after a high-profile on-the-field disagreement between the two in Friday’s come-from-behind victory over Kazakhstan.

His substitutions against Iceland, pulling off his two creative midfielders as the team tried to claw its way back from a two-goal deficit, also were questioned.

Some say his hands-off approach, a stark contrast to Van Gaal’s strict style, is not working and he needs to get tough with his team.

Robben, understandably, was also unimpressed with the team’s performance in Reykjavik.

“Rubbish,” he told Dutch broadcaster NOS. “Not worthy of the Netherlands team.”

Hiddink was more measured, however, saying after the match that the team and management need to calmly analyse what is going wrong.

SOCHI, Russia — The Marussia Formula One team are determined to defend Jules Bianchi’s legacy once they have picked up the pieces and regrouped after a week from hell.

The British-based team withdrew the Frenchman’s car from Sunday’s inaugural Russian Grand Prix as a mark of respect for their critically injured driver but, with their ninth place in the championship at stake, have decisions to make.

“We’ll come up with a plan for the next race and through to the end of the season, and I’m sure the guys are up for it,” sporting director Graeme Lowdon told reporters at the Sochi circuit.

“We make no comment as far as the driver line-up is concerned because we haven’t had time to sit down properly and have a look at the all options,” he added.

“We’ve a little bit of a gap now, which seems like a luxurious one, so we’ll use that time to work out what the best thing is. It’s never straightforward, so we’ll do whatever is right.”

Bianchi suffered severe head injuries after losing control on a wet track at Suzuka eight days ago and skidding off into a recovery tractor that was removing Adrian Sutil’s crashed Sauber.

He was taken to hospital unconscious and remains “critical but stable”.

There are three races remaining, with double points on offer for the final round in Abu Dhabi, and Marussia need two cars to have the best shot of preventing Sauber and Caterham from overtaking them in the standings.

The next up is Austin, Texas, in three weeks’ time, with American reserve Alexander Rossi looking the obvious candidate to take Bianchi’s place as Max Chilton’s teammate unless financial considerations come into play.

Mental challenge

The two points scored by Bianchi in Monaco were the struggling team’s first in Formula One and offer the prospect of a potentially lucrative payday at the end of the season for a team in desperate need of a boost.

Even a 10th place with the last roll of the dice in Abu Dhabi for one of their rivals would change everything.

“When you’ve had a serious incident, whether somebody isn’t hurt or not, it’s a major challenge. It’s not just an enormous challenge but it’s an enormous mental challenge as well for everybody involved,” said Lowdon of the past week.

The first day back at the factory, he added, was not going to be easy.

The team kept Bianchi’s car, assembled and ready to race, in the garage on Sunday with Chilton taking the start and managing only 10 laps before he retired after reporting problems with the car’s handling.

Bianchi’s accident overshadowed Russia’s inaugural race, with drivers carrying messages of support on their helmets and standing in a silent circle on the grid before the start.

Mercedes’ race winner and championship leader Lewis Hamilton said he had been thinking about Bianchi all weekend.

Lowdon hoped the gestures had been some support for the family, who remain at Bianchi’s bedside in Japan along with team principal John Booth.

“I think the best thing we can do now for Jules and the family is to really try and protect the position in the championship,” he said.

“It was a really great drive from Jules [in Monaco] and that got us something really valuable in sporting terms. We owe it to him now to defend that.”

BARCELONA — While Diego Costa stuttered before getting his first goal for Spain against Luxembourg on Sunday, youngster Paco Alcacer is leading from the front for the new-look team in Euro 2016 qualifying.

The 21-year-old Valencia striker scored on his competitive debut for Spain against Macedonia last month and now has three goals in as many qualifying fixtures, showing the way for the Chelsea hitman, who took seven games to get off the mark.

Alcacer even had words of encouragement after Costa, who bagged 36 goals for Atletico Madrid last season, was unable to score in the second qualifying match against Slovakia, which Spain surprisingly lost.

He said the goals would finally come for Costa and though Alcacer scored as a late substitute in Zilina, he could not do enough to prevent the 2-1 defeat.

That goal earned him a starting place alongside Costa against Luxembourg and he got the second in the 4-0 victory that means Spain have two wins and a defeat in Group C.

“If I am here, it is because I am doing well for my club and when you have a chance you have to take full advantage,” Alcacer told reporters.

“You can’t forget that strikers are dependent on their teammates as well for their passes.”

Costa, who has nine goals in nine games for Chelsea, missed a hatful of chances in the first half and was noticeably anxious in front of goal but he finally took advantage of Luxembourg’s slack defending after the interval.

“Everyone knows what a great player Diego is and when I am on a run when the goals don’t go in, I need my teammates to help me,” Alcacer added.

“When I got my goal, I tried to lift him as much as I could.”

New generation

Manchester City’s David Silva crowned one of his best Spain performances for some time with the opening goal but it was generally a night that belonged to the new generation.

Spain is looking to win its third successive European Championship in 2016 and it finished Sunday’s match with six players who have yet to appear at a senior international tournament.

The six, along with Koke, who did play at this year’s World Cup, are part of the generation which have won the past two under-21 European Championships, meaning there is plenty of promise following the disappointment in Brazil.

Spain failed to get out of the group stage in the World Cup and while it prompted the retirement of veterans Xavi, Xabi Alonso and David Villa, it has now opened the door to these players with calibre.

“We are showing that we are a good generation,” Alcacer continued.

It was an especially notable night for Manchester United’s David de Gea, who ousted captain Iker Casillas in goal and kept a clean sheet on his competitive debut.

“He didn’t have much to do but he did ensure that the team felt confident with him behind. The national team has plenty of quality at the back with De Gea, Casillas and Kiko Casilla,” Alcacer added.

BERLIN — World champions Germany will be desperate to bounce back with home win over Ireland next week to recover from a shock 2-0 defeat to Poland in their Euro 2016 qualifier on Saturday but in order to achieve that, they need to start scoring goals.

The Germans wasted a plethora of golden opportunities in Warsaw before slumping to their first ever loss to Poland, a stunning defeat that sent them tumbling down to third spot in qualifying Group D.

Failing to score is not a new problem for Germany, who encountered the issue as recently as this summer’s World Cup with coach Joachim Loew switching his formation midway through the tournament to promote Miroslav Klose as a lone striker.

The results were devastating for their opponents as the Germans raced to a fourth World Cup triumph.

But Klose cannot add to his record goal tally for Germany, having retired after the World Cup, and Loew has to figure out how his team can make their total domination around the rest of the pitch count in front of goal.

“We have to look ahead to Tuesday and Ireland and make sure we show a good reaction,” said Loew, who only had six players in his line-up from the side that started the World Cup final in July.

“We only played on one goal but could not score,” he said.

Injury absences

It would be far too premature to draw any conclusions on the state of the new German team given the large number of injury absences, including Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mesut Ozil and Marco Reus to name but a few.

The retirements of former captain Philipp Lahm, Klose and Per Mertesacker have also robbed the team of much-needed experience with 25-year-old Thomas Mueller being the most-capped player in the starting lineup on Saturday.

Loew started without an out-and-out striker on Saturday and with attacking midfielder Mueller up front. It was a similar situation in the early stages of the World Cup.

Newcomer Karim Bellarabi added plenty of pace down the flanks but failed to score from several good chances he carved out for himself. Mario Goetze, who also plays as an occasional forward, was equally as ineffective.

With only one natural forward, Borussia Moenchengladbach’s Max Kruse, in the squad but on the bench on Saturday, Loew will have to come up with a more effective plan if they are to beat Ireland in Gelsenkirchen.

“We just failed to score and given the amount of chances we had it was a joke,” Germany defender Mats Hummels lamented.

With three points from two qualifiers so far, Germany are well aware this is a long campaign and a maiden defeat to Poland, however damaging to their pride, is not a total disaster.

“It was just not our day,” Goetze said. “On Tuesday, we will win, get the three points and the table will look a lot different.”