Jordan impressive despite elimination from Olympic qualifiers

AMMAN — Jordan’s U-23 national football team is returning home on Monday after being eliminated from the quarter-finals of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Championship currently under way in Doha.

Jordan went down 1-0 to South Korea and failed to join the top four and a possible Olympic slot with the continents top three advancing to the Olympic Games football tournament in Rio de Janeiro.

Despite its elimination, team officials and observers have lauded the squad’s impressive participation. Jordan dominated the second half of the match and scored a goal which was ruled offside by the referee. 

 “I’m proud and satisfied with my team’s performance. These players proved that we have a bright future for Jordanian football,” coach Jamal Abu Abed told the media as the team set off on its return journey. “We were the better side and deserved a win and had a clear upper hand throughout the second half. The offside decision needs to be reviewed, it was a correct goal,” Abu Abed underlined.

South Korea’s head coach Shin Tae-yong acknowledged Jordan was dominant in the second half and said the narrow victory should serve as a good learning experience for his team.

“We had a good first half but I think our players lost their focus when the opponents came out attacking. I think we should be able to play better against Qatar,” he added.

In other quarter-final matches, Iraq beat the UAE 3-1, Japan beat Iran 3-0 and Qatar ousted North Korea 2-1. In the semis it is Japan vs Iraq while host Qatar plays South Korea.

Despite the busy agendas of the national squad in World Cup and Asian Cup qualifiers, as well as the local competition agendas which hampered the U-23 squad’s better preparation, Jordan had an impressive run and finished second in Group D after holding Australia and the UAE 0-0 after a 3-1 opening win over Vietnam.

In the inaugural AFC U-22 Championship in 2014 (now renamed AFC U-23 Championship), Iraq won the title after defeating Saudi Arabia and Jordan took third place when it beat South Korea. 

In 2015, Jordan’s U-23 squad was eliminated from the 1st West Asian Championship and in 2014 the line-up represented Jordan at the Asian Games where it made it to the quarter-finals.