Jordan bows out of Asian Cup

AMMAN  — Jordan ended its run at the 16th Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup currently under way in Australia when it lost to titleholders Japan 2-0 in Melbourne on Tuesday.

“They [Japan] are such a good side, any team that beats them may well win the tournament,” Jordan coach Ray Wilkins said in a pitchside TV interview with Reuters.

“They have a fantastic mixture of youth and experience and I think it will be very hard to beat this team.

“I’m disappointed for our lads because they’ve worked extremely hard but when you play against class, the class will show.”

Japan topped Group D with goals from striker Keisuke Honda and Shinji Kagawa putting it in the quarters with an unbeaten run including 4-0 over Palestine and 1-0 over Iraq.

Iraq took second spot after it beat first-time qualifiers Palestine 2-0 in Canberra as Jordan exited in the first round, failing to repeat its quarter-final qualification of 2004 and 2011. 

The event had a total of nine Arab teams among the 16 teams with the top two teams from each of the four groups moved to the quarters. 

Australia and South Korea qualified from Group A as Oman and Kuwait went home, Uzbekistan and China moved on from Group B as Saudi Arabia and North Korea were eliminated, Iran and the UAE qualified from Group C as Qatar and Bahrain went out.

The quarter-finals over the weekend will see four-time champs Japan plays the UAE, Iran takes on Iraq, China plays against hosts Australia while South Korea challenges Uzbekistan.

Jordan complicated its chances after its opening 1-0 defeat to Iraq but rebounded to avoid an early exit when substitute striker Hamza Dardour ended an 11-match unbeaten run and scored four goals in the 5-1 win over Palestine.

Dardour currently leads the scorers list and became the fourth player in AFC Asian Cup history to score four goals in a single game, joining Iranian duo Behtash Fariba and Ali Daei’ and Bahrain’s Ismail Abdullatif.

Since first taking part in Asian Cup qualifiers in 1971, this was Jordan’s third time at the Asian Cup finals.