Jordan upbeat as it hosts Asian champ Australia

AMMAN — Jordan hosts Australia on Thursday in a vital qualifier — its fourth in Group B for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, doubling as part of the qualification for 2019 Asian Cup.

The Kingdom has some line-up concerns as key striker, Ahmad Hayel is out — recovering from a head injury sustained while playing for his Kuwaiti club, Al Arabi, in April, while defender, Anas Bani Yaseen, is suspended after accruing two yellow cards in the previous qualifiers.

Goalkeeper and captain, Amer Shafi just returned to training after being ordered to rest an injured foot. Winger Yousef Rawashdeh is also nursing an injury.

Hamza Dardour, who in January became just the fourth player in history to score four goals in an Asian Cup finals match (against Palestine in Melbourne), has recovered from the cramps that saw leave early in the friendly against Iraq last week. 

Monther Abu Amara and Hassan Abdel Fattah arrived late into camp due to club commitments and are slightly injured.

It has been an inconsistent year for Jordan’s line-up which was led by Briton Ray Wilkins under whom the team failed to advance past the group stage of the 16th Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup in early 2015. 

Ahmad Abdul Qader took over in the transitional phase under whom the team played the first qualifier. 

Now Belgian Paul Put has been leading the squad since July, but the team’s agenda was under scrutiny by observers for not regrouping all summer and only playing Trinidad and Tobago and Iraq.

“On paper this is the toughest match we face but we have seen in the earlier games, especially the clash with Kyrgyzstan away, that these matches present challenges on and off the field,” Socceroos coach Ange Postecoglou was quoted on fifa.com as saying. 

“The last time Australia faced Jordan in Amman we lost that game so we have to be well prepared,” he added.

So far, Jordan beat Bangladesh 4-0 after a disappointing 0-0 draw with Kyrgyzstan and an opening 3-1 win over Tajikistan. Australia held the group after it beat Tajikistan 3-0, Bangladesh 5-0 and Kyrgyzstan 2-1. Bangladesh held Tajikistan 1-1 after it lost to Kyrgyzstan 3-1.

Forty teams are playing home and away in a round robin format in the current second qualifying round which runs until March 2016. 

Jordan dropped eight spots to 99th in the latest FIFA World Rankings, following which the team played Iraq and won 3-0.

The Kingdom had the most memorable World Cup qualifying journey in 2013 when it lost a possible chance to play at the World Cup for the first time and advanced to play then World’s 6th ranked Uruguay in an intercontinental qualifying tie for a place in the 2014 World Cup. It lost the home game 5-0 and held the former World Cup champs 0-0 in the away match. Jordan had never reached that far in World Cup qualifying since taking part in the qualifiers in 1985.

In the Asian Cup, Jordan reached the championship three times since first taking part in qualifiers in 1972. The pinnacle was at the 13th Asian Cup, when they lost to Japan in the quarter-finals and jumped to the best ever FIFA Ranking of 37th in August 2004. In 2011 Jordan again reached the quarter-finals.