Sports

AMMAN — Six of the leading teams from the region will compete in the West Asian Basketball Championships taking place in Jordan from January 29-February 2, according to the Jordan Olympic Committee News Service.

The host nation will be joined by Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Iran with all matches to be played at the Fuhais Club. The organising committee held a press conference on Tuesday afternoon announcing that everything was on track with Ayman Samawai, the Fuhais Club president, confirming that the venue is ready.

Jordan TV has committed to broadcasting all of the matches live while an agreement has also been reached with Lebanon’s LBC. The championships will take a straight league format with the top team from their five matches to be declared the winner. 

AMMAN — It was a memorable year for sport in 2016, both on and off the pitch.

As well as the notable achievements on the global level, Jordan underlined its position as a serious partner for the world of sport by hosting the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup to great acclaim.

It was a dream come true for the young Jordanian starlets who performed so valiantly against the world’s best in their age group.

But after the fanfare died down, rather than rest on their laurels and bask in the glory, Jordan went out and secured another major tournament in the 2018 Women’s Asian Cup with the host team already planning their participation.

The Jordan Olympic Committee News Service caught up with the team preparing to make an impact and spoke with technical manager Maher Abu Hantash.

“Our preparations are going as planned,” he said. “In December, we brought the squad together and focused on endurance and physical fitness, now we are in the second phase and working on identifying the players’ places in the team, in addition to playing friendly matches to reach the required level.”

A number of the U-17 World Cup team have now graduated to the seniors which the manager believes will be a big help.

“The current national team is a mix of previous players in the team and players who participated in the World Cup last year, which gives us the chance to prepare a perfect team.

“The World Cup has had its influence, especially in the facilities which will help us a lot in preparing the team.”

One of those players to step up is Stephanie Al Naber who played a starring role for Jordan back in September.

“It was quite a long break after the World Cup so we are excited to be back together again and preparing,” she said. “This is a big step up for us but we have time to prepare and I believe we will reach even better levels at the Asian Cup.”

One of the side’s veterans is Yasmeen Kheir whose return to the national team brings with it a host of international experience at the highest levels.

“To be back training with the national team is important for me as we have a role to highlight that women’s football is here to stay in Jordan,” she said.

Goalkeeper Rand Al Bustanji said that she has never felt fitter with the coaches working hard on their endurance, and she called her World Cup experience “a dream come true”.

The draw for the Asian Cup groups will take place in Amman on Saturday. Twenty-one countries will be vying for four places with Australia, Japan and China already qualified alongside Jordan who are the hosts.

AMMAN — Jazira top the Jordan Professional Football League standings as Leg 1 ended this week with no changes on standings and fans hopeful that Leg 2 will heat up the competition with four teams closely leading.

As teams break, the national team will hold a training camp in the UAE which includes a friendly against Georgia. Teams have a short time to regroup and address their gaps before they restart the league as well as Jordan Cup matches. Wihdat and Ahli will also prepare for their respective Asian Football Confederation competitions.

Wihdat are second after they beat Hussein 3-0, while Faisali held on to third after a 1-1 draw with Sahab. Manshieh are fourth after they held Ramtha 0-0 while Ahli could not improve after they lost 2-0 to Jazira. Shabab Urdun remained in 8th spots after they were held 0-0 by bottom placed Baqa’a. That Ras scored an important win as they try to move out of the last two after a 1-0 win over Sarih.

Jazira’s Syrian pro Mardig Mardigian still leads the top scorers list with eight goals. 

Manshieh, who joined the pro league this season with Sahab, have tipped the balance and are now in fourth place with teams like Ramtha, Ahli and Shabab Urdun further down the standings with inconsistent results.

Wihdat are looking to win their fourth consecutive and 16th overall title, while Faisali have not won the league in the past four years and eye their 33rd record title.

Ahli won the first major competition on the 2016/17 football calendar, making history when they beat reigning league champs Wihdat 2-1 to win the 34th Super Cup. In the Jordan Football Association Shield — back on the calendar after four years — Shabab Urdun scored a major 5-1 win over Faisali. It was Shabab Urdun’s second Shield title after they first won in 2007.

Last season, Wihdat retained the title with Faisali, Ahli, Jazira and Shabab Urdun in top five spots. It was Wihdat’s third consecutive and 15th league title since they moved up to the Professional League in 1975. Faisali beat Wihdat to clinch the Super Cup while it was Ahli, who after years in the backstage, beat Shabab Urdun to win their first Jordan Cup final.

MANCHESTER, England — Zlatan Ibrahimovic equalised late for Manchester United to salvage a 1-1 draw against fierce rival Liverpool in a result that damaged both teams’ Premier League title chances on Sunday.

Ibrahimovic cancelled out James Milner’s 27th-minute penalty by glancing a header in off the crossbar in the 84th minute at Old Trafford.

Liverpool ended United’s nine-game winning run in all competitions — six of which had come in the league — but dropped seven points behind first-placed Chelsea. Sixth-placed United was 12 points off the leader.

On the day United rolled out advertising hoardings displaying Paul Pogba’s new Twitter emoji, the player himself made a crucial mistake by conceding a penalty while jumping with his back to the ball at a corner.

Milner converted to give Liverpool the lead against the run of play but the visitors created little else in an intense, scrappy match between English football’s two most decorated clubs.

Wayne Rooney, needing one goal to surpass Bobby Charlton as United’s outright record scorer, came on for the start of the second half but did not have a genuine chance at a history-making goal.

The recent hot streak had raised the possibility of United making a late run at the title, so this result was a setback.

“We get one point, but we were not on the top of our game. It was a hard fight, a hard game,” Ibrahimovic said. “I think we did simple mistakes. We were not comfortable.”

United got its reward with a more direct approach late in the game. Marouane Fellaini came on as a 76th-minute substitute and the tall Belgian made a difference — and played a key role in the goal.

His glancing header from a left-wing cross struck the post and the ball eventually made its way to right back Antonio Valencia, whose return cross was met by Ibrahimovic for his 14th league goal of the season.

Milner’s penalty was Liverpool’s only real chance in the first half, with United having more sight at goal — in particular one-on-one chances for Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Pogba skewed his chance wide and Mkhitaryan was denied by Simon Mignolet.

Rooney’s arrival in place of Michael Carrick meant the game became more open and disjointed, and Liverpool suddenly looked dangerous on the counterattack, especially after Philippe Coutinho came on as a substitute.

“We didn’t reflect the qualities we have and Liverpool have but it was very emotional, intense, aggressive. We fought until the last second,” Mourinho said.

“We were the team that attacked and Liverpool were the team that defended.”

AMMAN — Jordan’s rising tennis star Abdullah Shelbayeh has clinched an unique U-14 double after winning the singles and the doubles at the Asian Junior Tennis Championships in Bangkok, Thailand, according to the Jordan Olympic Committee News Service.

Shelbayeh beat Syria’s Taim Al Azamah in the final 2-0, and then teamed up with the same player to beat Jordan’s Mohammad Al Kotob and Syria’s Pierre Jarwa in the final of the doubles.

In the female competitions, Jana Al Khateeb lost in the semifinal to Maria Breidy of Sri Lanka.

Jordan sent four players to the event based on their performances from the recent West Asian Championships held in Amman.

Randa Al Qudsi also competed and reached the quarter-finals.

AMMAN — Yara Qaqeesh won the Abu Dhabi Grand Ju Jitsu Teams Championship gold in the 70kg, beating Evana Zgheela from the Meladwest team in the purple belt final. Earlier she beat the UAE’s Shams Hassan in the semifinal, according to the Jordan Olympic Committee News Service.

Teammate Abdullah Nebas won silver in the black belt 67kg Category. His path to the final was secured with wins over Marcello Bonti of the UAE team, and Esaco Bavia of the Saikoo team in the semifinal.

But he lost the final to the Armed Forces team’s Wellington Deera. Mohammad Murad won bronze in the blue belt 67kg Category after he lost to the Strella Aliens team’s Abdel Kabayel Kalder in the semifinal. Basel Fanous also took bronze in the back belt 94kg Category. 

AMMAN  — The national football team starts a training camp in the UAE on Sunday which comes amid preparations for the 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers kicking off in March.

During the training camp, Jordan is slated to play 121st ranked Georgia in the first match under head coach Abdullah Misfer, from the UAE.

Misfer named 25 players for the current camp which will now end by January 26, instead of the 29, in order for players to go back to their clubs for the restart of the Jordan Professional Football League and Jordan Cup as well as regional competitions for Wihdat and Ahli.

“We are all working together to develop and strengthen Jordanian football. The agendas and line-up of the clubs are a pillar for the base of the national team,” he told the media after announcing details of the line-up and upcoming camp.

“There are many players who deserve to be on the national team and the opportunity will always be there for the best,” he added

The draw for the qualifiers will be held on January 23 when 24 teams that will be divided into six groups with the top two from each group moving on to the finals. The qualifiers will start March 28 and end on March 27, 2018.

The Jordan Football Association appointed Misfer to lead the national squad in its upcoming phase with Jamal Abu Abed as coach and Abdullah Abu Zam’eh as assistant.

Meanwhile, the first FIFA Rankings of 2017 were issued on the weekend with Jordan going down 2 spots to 107th. Jordan is still out of the Asian top 10 trailing Iran (29), South Korea (37), Australia (44), Japan (46), Saudi Arabia (48), Uzbekistan (61), the UAE (64), China (81), Qatar (85) and Syria (96). 

Top 10 world rankings are led by Argentina at No. 1 ahead of Brazil, Germany, Chile, Belgium, Columbia, France, Portugal, Uruguay and Spain. Egypt is the top ranked Arab team at 35, followed by Tunisia 36 and Algeria 39th.

The appointment of Misfer came soon after the termination of contract of Abdullah Abu Zam’eh, after they team’s latest unimpressive results in three friendlies in which they lost to Uzbekistan 1-0, held Iraq and Lebanon to a goalless draws.

Observers have been scrutinising the national team’s plan over the past period as Jordan was eliminated from 2018 World Cup qualifiers. It has been a combination of inconsistent results and five coaches leading the vital qualifying process in crucial qualifiers.

In its latest friendies, Jordan lost to the Moroccan second tier team 2-1, drew 1-1 with Oman, 0-0 with Bahrain, 1-1 with Lebanon and lost to 3-2 to Qatar. The squad’s last tournament was the King’s Cup, an international football tournament organised in Thailand where Jordan beat the UAE 2-1 but lost 2-0 to the host in the final. 

After putting behind elimination from 2018 World Cup qualifiers, the upcoming Asian qualifiers will see group winners and four best runners-up (total 12 teams) advance to the 2019 AFC Asian Cup finals and the final round of qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The next best 24 teams from the preliminary stage of the joint qualifiers will compete in a separate competition for the remaining slots (12 slots or 11 slots + one slot for the host) in the 24-team 2019 Asian Cup.

AMMAN — Wihdat and Faisali have narrowed Jazira’s lead in the Jordan Professional Football League as teams head into the final week of Leg 1 of the country’s leading competition.

Jazira went down 3-0 to Manshieh after a 1-1 draw with Ramtha last week cut their lead to one point as Faisali beat Baqa’a 3-0 and Wihdat scored a 4-0 win over Sarih.

Jazira will play Ahli this week. The latter is now down to 6th after they were held 0-0 by Sahab. Faisali will play Sahab while Wihdat take on Hussein who beat Shabab Urdun 1-0 to climb to 5th.

Manshieh next play Ramtha, who are 7th after they beat That Ras 1-0. Sarih next play That Ras, who are 11th, while Baqa’a have disappointed fans this year and are now bottom of the table and next play former titleholders Shabab Urdun.

Jazira’s Syrian pro Mardig Mardigian still leads the top scorers list with seven goals. 

Manshieh, who joined the league this season with Sahab, have tipped the balance and are now in fourth place with teams like Ramtha, Ahli and Shabab Urdun further down the standings with inconsistent results.

Ahli won the first major competition on the 2016/17 football calendar, making history when they beat reigning league champs Wihdat 2-1 to win the 34th Super Cup. In the Jordan Football Association Shield — back on the calendar after four years — Shabab Urdun scored a major 5-1 win over Faisali. It was Shabab Urdun’s second Shield title after they first won in 2007.

Last season, Wihdat retained the title with Faisali, Ahli, Jazira and Shabab Urdun in top five spots. It was Wihdat’s third consecutive and 15th league title since they moved up to the Professional League in 1975. Faisali beat Wihdat to clinch the Super Cup while it was Ahli, who after years in the backstage, beat Shabab Urdun to win their first Jordan Cup final.

SYDNEY — Former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki’s streak of not advancing past the quarter-finals in her past seven Sydney Internationals was extended in stifling heat on Wednesday.

In temperatures reaching 40°C for much of the match, Wozniacki lost 7-5, 6-7 (6), 6-4 to Barbora Strycova in a duel that stretched to 3 hours, 19 minutes.

Both players were treated for foot injuries during a gruelling second set at Ken Rosewall Arena. Wozniacki came back from 5-2 down in that set, and then 5-0 in the tiebreaker, to win it and force a third set.

“It was brutal out there... but you just try and think like you’re on a beach drinking pina coladas,” Wozniacki said. “That’s basically your train of thought. You know that it’s the same for both players, so I was just trying to mentally just try and keep cool.”

In the semifinals, Strycova will play Agnieszka Radwanska. The second-seeded Pole beat Chinese qualifier Duan Yingying 6-3, 6-2.

Former Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard continued her strong start to the year with a 6-2, 6-3 quarterfinal win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Bouchard had a breakout season in 2014, reaching the semifinals at the Australian Open and French Open before making the final at Wimbledon. But she has only gone past the fourth round at a major once since then and slipped to No. 46 at the end of last year.

“I feel more and more confident every day,” Bouchard said. “I feel like I’m getting back into the rhythm of things a little bit, but it’s a long road.”

The Canadian’s semifinal opponent will be Sydney-born Johanna Konta of Britain, who beat Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 7-5. Konta broke Kasatkina’s service in the 11th game of the second set, helped by a double-fault to set up break point in that game.

Last year at the Australian Open, Konta became the first British women to make a Grand Slam semifinal since 1983 before losing to eventual champion Angelique Kerber.

In men’s play in Sydney, two-time defending champion Viktor Troicki beat Paolo Lorenzi 6-3, 6-4, and second-seeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay defeated Nicolas Mahut of France 6-4, 2-6, 6-2.

In Auckland, New Zealand, John Isner narrowly avoided the fate of two former champions when he beat Malek Jaziri 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (6) to make the quarter-finals of the ASB Classic.

Isner won his last three points with volleys at the net.

“The way I need to finish points is that if I can I have to try and finish them at the net,” Isner said. “I did that three times in a row and I’m very proud of that.”

Four former champions were scheduled to play second-round matches Wednesday but by the time the second-seeded Isner took the court, two had bowed out.

Defending champion and No. 1-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut was forced to withdraw before play began because of a stomach virus, handing Ruben Statham a place in the second round as a lucky loser from the qualifying rounds.

Jiri Vesely, the 2015 champion, was due to play Bautista Agut and thought he had caught a break when the Spaniard withdrew and the 434th-ranked Statham took his place. But Vesely had a tussle on his hands before winning 6-7 (6), 7-5, 6-3.

Four-time champion David Ferrer was first up on centre court and lost 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (4) to Robin Haase of the Netherlands. In a night match, fourth-seeded Jack Sock beat fellow American Ryan Harrison 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-1.

At the WTA’s Hobart International, former French Open finalist Lucie Safarova was beaten 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 by Japanese qualifier Risa Ozaki. Ozaki will next meet Monica Niculescu.

Top-seeded Kiki Bertens advanced with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Galina Voskoboeva of Kazakhstan and Shelby Rogers defeated Lara Arruabarrena of Spain 6-2, 6-2.