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AMMAN — Jordan plays Saudi Arabia in a friendly match on Friday ahead of upcoming 2026 World Cup Round 3/Group B qualifying matches resuming June 5.
The squad regrouped last week and played the U-23 squad before leaving to Dammam as HRH Crown Prince Hussein dropped into the team’s practice motivating players to give their utmost as they strive to achieve a historic first time qualification to the World Cup.
Head coach Jamal Sellami named the squad members for the Saudi training camp after the U-23 match and will soon decide the final lineup for the last two qualifiers against Oman on June 5 and Iraq on June 10.
“We had hoped to have two friendlies before the qualifiers, but only one was secured,” Sellami told the press, adding that Ali Alwan was in good form despite being on the injury list for some time together with Nour Rawabdeh who underwent surgery.
“We had many players injured and absent during earlier qualifiers. We are therefore working on having multiple replacements for the future,” he added.
The team’s star strikers Mousa Ta’mari and Yazan Nu’eimat joined the lineup earlier than Yazan Al Arab and others who were on club duty abroad, as Mahmoud Mardi and Nizar Rashdan will sit out the first qualifier due to bookings.
As they steadily make their way to a possible World Cup qualification, Jordan is second in Group B, and now needs to beat Oman hoping Iraq stumbles against South Korea to book a qualifying slot to the World Cup.
Jordan advanced to Round 3 World Cup qualifiers for the second time in its history while also booking their spot in the next edition of the 2027 Asian Cup.
So far in the qualifiers, Jordan held South Korea 1-1 and lost 2-0, beat Palestine 3-1 twice, held Kuwait 1-1 twice, held Iraq 0-0 and beat Oman 4-0.
After FIFA expanded the format to include 16 more teams in the upcoming 2026 edition, 18 Asian nations are playing in three groups in home and away format, with the top two from each group advancing directly to the World Cup while the rest will play Round 4 in two groups with group leaders advancing and a possible ninth team qualifying through intercontinental play-offs.
Since 1986, Jordan is playing the World Cup qualifiers for the 7th time.
They were on the verge of qualifying to the 2014 World Cup when they advanced to play then FIFA 6th ranked Uruguay in an intercontinental qualifying tie before exiting.
Jordan had never reached that far in qualifying with Round 3 being the furthest they reached in other editions.
Last year, the Kingdom was within reach of being crowned the continent’s champs for the first time in history, but finished second in their fifth time as the Asian Cup since 1972.
Jordan’s previous best past performance was reaching the quarterfinals twice.
After dropping to 87th in FIFA World rankings in 2023, Jordan shot up 17 spots to 70th in February 2024 after the Asian Cup finals and have steadily been improving.
Now the team is 62nd in the rankings issued in April, 9th among Asian teams and 8th among Arab teams.