Jordan books spot in U-20 Asian Cup

AMMAN  —  Jordan qualified to the U20 Asian Cup despite losing to hosts Qatar 3-2 in U-20 Asian Cup Group J qualifiers which ended in Doha Sunday evening.

Following the third round of matches, Qatar topped Group J and Jordan qualified as one of five best second placed teams to the U-20 Asian Cup scheduled for China in February 2025 - a qualifying tournament to the U20 World Cup.

Jordan had an impressive run in the event beating Singapore 2-0 and Hong Kong 7-0, as Qatar beat Singapore 3-0 and Hong Kong 2-0  while Hong Kong beat Singapore 2-0. 

The 45 Asian teams played the AFC qualifiers in 10 groups, with the group winners and five best second-placed teams advancing to the finals. Qualifying teams were Syria from Group A, Uzbekistan from Group B, South Korea from Group C, Saudi Arabia and Australia from Group D, North Korea from Group E, Indonesia and Yemen from Group F, Iran from Group G, Iraq and Thailand from Group H, Japan and Kyrgyzstan from Group I.

The Asian Cup,  previously known as the AFC Youth Championship and AFC U-19 Championship, is a biennial competition organised by the HYPERLINK "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Football_Confederation" \o "Asian Football Confederation"Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for the men's under-20 national teams of Asia.  

Jordan qualified to the finals for the 9th time and hope and repeat their 2006 feat when they finished fourth in the U-20 Asian Cup  and advanced to the U-20 World Cup in 2007. In previous Asian Cup editions, the team’s best performance was reaching the semifinals in 2006, exiting the group stages in 1977, 1978, 2008, 2010, 2018; exiting the quarterfinals in 2012  and 2023. In the past decade, they did not qualify in 2014 and 2016.

Jordan is currently preparing to host the U-17 Asian Cup qualifiers set for October with the Kingdom playing Group A alongside Iran, Syria, Hong Kong, and North Korea.  In 2022, they hosted Group A qualifiers for the U-17 Asian Cup but failed to advance.  The team also could not retain their West Asian Championship title and exited Round  1.

Similarly, the U-23 squad exited the 6th AFC U-23 Asian Cup – a qualifier to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.  It was the Kingdom’s 6th time at the U-23 Asian Cup (previously the Asian Championship). Their best performance was finishing 3rd in 2013. They reached the quarterfinals in 2016 and 2020 and were eliminated from the first round in 2018 and 2022. Previous champions are Iraq 2013, Japan 2016, Uzbekistan 2018, Korea 2020, Saudi Arabia 2022, Japan 2024.