League heads into last stretch

AMMAN — It’s now up to the upcoming two rounds of the 64th Jordan Professional League to determine the champion in a season that has witnessed inconsistency at both ends of the standings.

Wihdat lead Faisali by only two points and both still have a chance to be crowned champ. Wihdat need to win their upcoming two matches. If they fail and Faisali score two wins the latter will be crowned champ. If Wihdat draw in a match, there might be a need for a title-deciding match.

Ahli have lost the chance for the title, but are still in contention for runner-up. The team is now eyeing their May 6 Jordan Cup final which will bring the veteran club to the forefront of competitions.

The two leading teams lost important points last week: Wihdat, who went down 3-1 to That Ras, next have a tough match against Ramtha, who beat Ahli 2-0. Faisali will play Hussein Irbid after a 1-1 draw with Kufrsoum stopped them in their tracks last week.

Ahli are now third and next have an easy match against already relegated Asala. Shabab Urdun, who beat Hussein 1-0, next play Baqa’a, who scored a 21-1 win over Asala and are trying to move away from the relegation zone.

Jazira, who were held 0-0 by Sarih and are fifth, next play That Ras, who are eightth.

Faisali and Wihdat are also gearing up to resume Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup next week. Wihdat are third in Group A after a 0-0 with Turkmenistan’s Altyn Asyr. The Jordanian champs earlier held the Turkemen team 1-1 in leg 1, lost an away match against Lebanon’s Al Ahd 3-2 after their opening 2-0 win over Bahrain’s Hidd.

In Group B, Faisali are second after they beat Lebanon’s Tripoli 3-1. They were earlier held 1-1 with Tripoli beat Iraq’s Naft Al Wasat 2-1 after their opening 0-0 draw with Turkmenistan’s Istiklol Dushanbe.  

So far this season, Jordan Cup titleholders Faisali beat league titleholders Wihdat 1-0 to win the 33rd Super Cup. Apart from conceding the Super Cup, and elimination from the Jordan Cup, Wihdat now have the league title left for grabs. Wihdat have been league champ for the past two consecutive years while Faisali finished at a disappointing 7th place as runner-up and third places went to Jazira and Ramtha. Ahli are the surprise team of the league this season. After relegation to Division 1 in 2004 for the first time in their history, they but were back among the Pro League clubs in 2014, and finished 5th in 2015. They have now made it to the Jordan Cup final against Shabab Urdun slated for May 5.

Standings
(Previous position in parenthesis)