U-23 team gets easy qualifying group at West Asian Championship

AMMAN — The U-23 national team was drawn in Group A for the upcoming West Asian Championship kicking off on September 30.

Jordan will play alongside hosts Qatar, Palestine and Yemen in the inaugural event which includes Iran Saudi Arabia and Bahrain in Group B; the UAE, Oman and Syria in Group C. The top team from each group will move on to round 2 alongside the best second placed team.

The draw might have served Jordan making up for an otherwise modest preparation period hampered with no training camps and serious friendlies. Coach Jamal Abu Abed noted the Asian and Olympic agenda ahead needed competitive playing experience underlining that the U-23 team squad did not have enough high level friendlies.

A four-nation friendly in Slovakia was cancelled after clubs did not release U-23 players to join training citing the local agenda. 

Abu Abed underlined the team needs to be supported so that a full line-up of recalled players attend practice when regrouped noting the significance of the Asian Football Association (AFC) U-23 Championships, which will be held in Qatar in January 2016, as the 16-team competition also serves as Asia’s qualifying tournament for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The AFC announced the qualifiers to the championship which include Group B champs Jordan in addition to winners of Groups A, C, D, E, F, G, H, I and J (Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Syria, Australia, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, China) as well five best second-placed teams from all groups — Thailand, Iran, Vietnam, Yemen, Uzbekistan — who will join hosts Qatar at the AFC U-23 Championship January 12-30, 2016. 

Jordan topped Group B qualifiers in Amman as the team overcame adversity and the change of schedule three times, which observers feared would undermine preparedness and competitive advantage. Jordan held Kuwait 3-3, beat Kyrgyzstan 4-0 and Pakistan 5-0 to advance. 

Over the past year, the U-23 team has impressed observers when it beat South Korea to take bronze at the inaugural AFC U-22 Championship (now renamed the AFC U23 Championship) as Iraq beat Saudi Arabia to take the title. The same squad also represented Jordan at the Asian Games where it made it to the quarter-finals despite a bumpy preparation period amid the busy agenda of the national team as well as local clubs. Jordan beat the UAE 1-0, India 2-0 and Kyrgyzstan 2-0 in extra time before losing 2-0 to Thailand in the quarters.

U-16 team heads to Qatar

The U-16 national football team plays Qatar on Wednesday before heading to Kyrgyzstan Group B qualifiers for the 2016 AFC U-16 Asian Championship where it will play Nepal, Oman and Kyrgyzstan from September 16 -20.

The squad played only four official friendlies losing 3-2 and 4-2 to the UAE and also 3-2 to Palestine before defeating it 2-0. It also played a series of local friendlies in the past month as coach Abdulla Qitati finalised the line-up, beating the youth team of Shabab Urdun 2-1, defeating Baqaa 2-0 after losing to them, 1-0 and 2-1. It also beat Yarmouk 4-1 and 1-1 as Qitati underlined “the importance of getting into the routine of Asian competitions and all the squad ready to play every 48 hours”.