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MELBOURNE — Amid the time-worn cliches of “learning curves” and “wake-up calls” murmured by Australia’s downcast players in the wake of their dismal 1-0 loss to Qatar, it took stalwart midfielder Mark Bresciano to cut to the heart of the matter.

“There’s something not right [and] we’ve got to fix it because it is getting close,” the 34-year-old told reporters after Tuesday’s defeat in Doha triggered alarm bells Down Under.

Bresciano was referring to the Asian Cup, which Australia host in three months and where organisers have pinned their hopes on a successful Footballoos campaign to soak up the huge costs of staging the continental showpiece.

After completing a barren Middle Eastern tour, the Australians head off to their respective clubs and some may be grateful to return to their relative anonymity in Europe.

The few heading home to play in the country’s A-League will not be expecting to be mobbed by welcoming fans at local airports.

Following a scoreless draw with United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi on Friday, a match in which forward Tim Cahill’s absence for all but 13 minutes was keenly felt, coach Ange Postecoglou dismissed criticism as: “Heard it all before.”

After the Qatar loss, in which the team’s main strike weapon Cahill started on the pitch, the 49-year-old was not quite so blase.

“I keep saying I’m making these decisions and I’m making them for a reason and that’s probably costing us in terms of performance and in terms of fluency,” he told reporters after his shake-up of the side fell spectacularly flat.

“But it is what it is and I take responsibility because I’m making these decisions.”

A successful coach at club level, Postecoglou took the job from sacked German Holger Osieck a year ago amid much fanfare.

Given a five-year mandate to rebuild a team, he was also granted a free pass to blood new players at the Brazil World Cup and enjoyed a very generous assessment of the team’s first round exit from the finals after three straight losses.

Being beaten by the world’s best is one thing, but losing to Asian minnows is another and Postecoglou now holds an indefensible record of one win from 10 matches this year.

Long fancying themselves masters of their own backyard, Australia is now ranked 84th in the world and ninth in Asia, behind teams like Jordan (69th) and Oman (76th).

Australia plays its final Asian Cup warm-up against reigning champions Japan in Osaka in November and has just over a month to work out how to score goals.

“Not far from panic,” former Australia goalkeeper and television pundit Mark Bosnich commented after the Qatar loss.

Postecoglou maintained a calmer front, dismissing any effect the defeat would have on the Footballoos’ confidence before the Asian Cup.

“No, because I’m kind of manufacturing this,” he said.

“I’m making it as hard as possible, so the players will be fine. They’ll be ready to go.

“We’re putting these challenges to them for a reason and I think in the long run it will be good for us.”

Bresciano, a veteran of three World Cups and with Cahill, one of the last of the Footballoos’ “golden generation”, has long provided laser-sharp delivery and duly torpedoed Postecoglou’s “it’s all part of the plan” defence.

“Personally I think a big improvement [is needed],” he said.

“If we’re going to have any chance of winning, games like tonight we shouldn’t be losing.

“The football in the Gulf region has improved dramatically in recent years. We’re going through this transition with the young boys coming in and maybe the standard has dropped a little bit.”

LONDON — Mercedes are almost ready to let Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg off the leash now that the title-chasing pair have secured the team’s first Formula One constructors’ world championship. Almost, but not quite.

“If you look at the points, we have made a massive step towards the drivers’ title,” said Mercedes motor sport head Toto Wolff after the team’s ninth one-two and 13th win of the season in Sunday’s inaugural Russian Grand Prix.

“So we could be coming into a situation which everybody would love of course, and it’s safe to let them race in the way they want to race.”

Wolff said that for the time being, until it was mathematically certain that the Mercedes drivers could not be overtaken, there remained “an invisible little leash” restraining them.

While there is no question in anyone’s mind that Hamilton or Rosberg will be crowned champion at the end of the season, there is still the slimmest of chances that Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo could do it.

The Australian is 92 points behind Hamilton and 75 adrift of Rosberg with 100 remaining to be won from the last three races. No other driver is in contention.

Ricciardo is the only man other than the Mercedes drivers to have won this season but he would still need three more victories to have any chance and even then it would require the Silver Arrows to draw an unthinkable blank.

Realistically, his chances are likely to be snuffed out at the next race in Austin, Texas, in three weeks’ time.

Double trouble

The one thing Mercedes do not want is to go to Abu Dhabi with Ricciardo still in with a shout and double points — 50 for the winner — available for the first time.

The twist in the tail means Hamilton can take nothing for granted, despite having won more than twice as many races as his teammate. He said he would just focus on trying to win as always.

“Whatever will be, will be,” he told reporters on Sunday night. “For me, it’s important not to put any negative energy or concern out there, and there’s no need to be concerned because I’ve the utmost belief in this team and the car, and I’m in the best form of my life.

“There’s no point thinking ‘What if this happens or that happens, or what happens if he wins?’. There’s no point thinking those things.

“I honestly think that’s the wrong way to look at it. It’s like looking at a glass that’s either half empty or half full. That’s just the wrong approach.”

The 2008 world champion’s triumph in Sochi made him only the fourth driver — after Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and his compatriot Nigel Mansell — to win nine races in a single season.

Rosberg has won four so far, Ricciardo three.

Yet the Briton is still only 17 points clear of the German who has everything to play for.

It is not beyond the realms of possibility for Hamilton to win 11 races this season and still end up without the title if Rosberg finishes second in the next two and then wins in Abu Dhabi with Hamilton suffering a retirement.

For the moment, however, Hamilton is in the form of his life. His victory in Sochi was the fourth in a row for the Briton and he was quickest all weekend.

“I have seen Lewis in such a great state of mind. He is a happy person. He is happy in his life, he is happy in the team,” said Wolff, who made clear he wanted the Briton to stay beyond the end of next year when his contract expires.

“There is so much competition in the team between the drivers but we are still having this team feeling. In the briefings, in our discussions, there is energy. And it’s moving the team forward.

“He [Hamilton] is definitely in a different league since I first met him.”

Bonuses 

Rank and file Mercedes team members are in line for average bonuses of £10,000 ($15,963) each after Hamilton and Rosberg brought home the Formula One constructors’ title.

A team spokesman confirmed all permanent staff members at the Brackley factory in central England would get the payments as part of a company bonus scheme set up at the start of the season.

Red Bull, whose reign as world champions ended at Sunday’s Russian Grand Prix, have paid similar bonuses to their factory staff for the past four years.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Only three months after the Netherlands reached the World Cup semifinals, the team is crumbling.

And Guus Hiddink, the man who guided the team to the 1998 semifinals but only returned as coach of his country’s national team after the last World Cup, is the one being blamed.

“I think Guus Hiddink doesn’t have really a game plan,” former Netherlands midfielder Ronald de Boer, who previously played under Hiddink, told Sky Sports. “With all due respect for Hiddink, he’s 67 years old.”

The Dutch have lost three of four matches since Hiddink took over from Louis van Gaal, including a European Championship qualifier against Iceland on Monday. The 2-0 loss — the first Dutch setback against the island nation in 11 meetings — sparked an outcry against Hiddink, who also led South Korea to the World Cup semifinals in 2002.

Top-selling national daily De Telegraaf said the team was “in a state of decay.”

Despite the qualifying losses to Iceland and the Czech Republic, the Dutch are far from out of the running to qualify for Euro 2016.

The top two teams in each of the nine groups progress automatically, the best third-place team also qualifies automatically, and the other eight can qualify through a play-off. But the losses and poor play are a national headache for a country obsessed by the fortunes of its beloved “Oranje”.

It was only three months ago that euphoria greeted nearly every Dutch performance in Brazil, where Van Gaal’s tactical switches — from dropping the favoured Dutch 4-3-3 system, to swapping goalkeepers for a penalty shoot-out, to playing winger Dirk Kuyt at left back — all seemed to work.

The Netherlands dismantled defending champion Spain 5-1 in its first match and went on to the semifinals, where the team finally lost to Argentina on penalties.

After beating Brazil 3-0 for third place, Van Gaal left for Manchester United — where he also has had a far-from-fantastic start — while Hiddink took over the Dutch national team for the first time since that semifinal run at the 1998 World Cup in France.

In between his two stints with the Netherlands, Hiddink found success just about everywhere he went. Besides his time with South Korea, he guided Australia to the second round of the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

But his golden touch appears to have disappeared this time.

The Dutch team’s defence, which performed far better than most observers expected in Brazil, now looks vulnerable, while the midfield lacks creative spark and the forward line appears overly reliant on Arjen Robben.

Even before Monday’s loss, Hiddink had to clear the air between strikers Robin van Persie and Klaas Jan Huntelaar after a high-profile on-the-field disagreement between the two in Friday’s come-from-behind victory over Kazakhstan.

His substitutions against Iceland, pulling off his two creative midfielders as the team tried to claw its way back from a two-goal deficit, also were questioned.

Some say his hands-off approach, a stark contrast to Van Gaal’s strict style, is not working and he needs to get tough with his team.

Robben, understandably, was also unimpressed with the team’s performance in Reykjavik.

“Rubbish,” he told Dutch broadcaster NOS. “Not worthy of the Netherlands team.”

Hiddink was more measured, however, saying after the match that the team and management need to calmly analyse what is going wrong.

SOCHI, Russia — The Marussia Formula One team are determined to defend Jules Bianchi’s legacy once they have picked up the pieces and regrouped after a week from hell.

The British-based team withdrew the Frenchman’s car from Sunday’s inaugural Russian Grand Prix as a mark of respect for their critically injured driver but, with their ninth place in the championship at stake, have decisions to make.

“We’ll come up with a plan for the next race and through to the end of the season, and I’m sure the guys are up for it,” sporting director Graeme Lowdon told reporters at the Sochi circuit.

“We make no comment as far as the driver line-up is concerned because we haven’t had time to sit down properly and have a look at the all options,” he added.

“We’ve a little bit of a gap now, which seems like a luxurious one, so we’ll use that time to work out what the best thing is. It’s never straightforward, so we’ll do whatever is right.”

Bianchi suffered severe head injuries after losing control on a wet track at Suzuka eight days ago and skidding off into a recovery tractor that was removing Adrian Sutil’s crashed Sauber.

He was taken to hospital unconscious and remains “critical but stable”.

There are three races remaining, with double points on offer for the final round in Abu Dhabi, and Marussia need two cars to have the best shot of preventing Sauber and Caterham from overtaking them in the standings.

The next up is Austin, Texas, in three weeks’ time, with American reserve Alexander Rossi looking the obvious candidate to take Bianchi’s place as Max Chilton’s teammate unless financial considerations come into play.

Mental challenge

The two points scored by Bianchi in Monaco were the struggling team’s first in Formula One and offer the prospect of a potentially lucrative payday at the end of the season for a team in desperate need of a boost.

Even a 10th place with the last roll of the dice in Abu Dhabi for one of their rivals would change everything.

“When you’ve had a serious incident, whether somebody isn’t hurt or not, it’s a major challenge. It’s not just an enormous challenge but it’s an enormous mental challenge as well for everybody involved,” said Lowdon of the past week.

The first day back at the factory, he added, was not going to be easy.

The team kept Bianchi’s car, assembled and ready to race, in the garage on Sunday with Chilton taking the start and managing only 10 laps before he retired after reporting problems with the car’s handling.

Bianchi’s accident overshadowed Russia’s inaugural race, with drivers carrying messages of support on their helmets and standing in a silent circle on the grid before the start.

Mercedes’ race winner and championship leader Lewis Hamilton said he had been thinking about Bianchi all weekend.

Lowdon hoped the gestures had been some support for the family, who remain at Bianchi’s bedside in Japan along with team principal John Booth.

“I think the best thing we can do now for Jules and the family is to really try and protect the position in the championship,” he said.

“It was a really great drive from Jules [in Monaco] and that got us something really valuable in sporting terms. We owe it to him now to defend that.”

BARCELONA — While Diego Costa stuttered before getting his first goal for Spain against Luxembourg on Sunday, youngster Paco Alcacer is leading from the front for the new-look team in Euro 2016 qualifying.

The 21-year-old Valencia striker scored on his competitive debut for Spain against Macedonia last month and now has three goals in as many qualifying fixtures, showing the way for the Chelsea hitman, who took seven games to get off the mark.

Alcacer even had words of encouragement after Costa, who bagged 36 goals for Atletico Madrid last season, was unable to score in the second qualifying match against Slovakia, which Spain surprisingly lost.

He said the goals would finally come for Costa and though Alcacer scored as a late substitute in Zilina, he could not do enough to prevent the 2-1 defeat.

That goal earned him a starting place alongside Costa against Luxembourg and he got the second in the 4-0 victory that means Spain have two wins and a defeat in Group C.

“If I am here, it is because I am doing well for my club and when you have a chance you have to take full advantage,” Alcacer told reporters.

“You can’t forget that strikers are dependent on their teammates as well for their passes.”

Costa, who has nine goals in nine games for Chelsea, missed a hatful of chances in the first half and was noticeably anxious in front of goal but he finally took advantage of Luxembourg’s slack defending after the interval.

“Everyone knows what a great player Diego is and when I am on a run when the goals don’t go in, I need my teammates to help me,” Alcacer added.

“When I got my goal, I tried to lift him as much as I could.”

New generation

Manchester City’s David Silva crowned one of his best Spain performances for some time with the opening goal but it was generally a night that belonged to the new generation.

Spain is looking to win its third successive European Championship in 2016 and it finished Sunday’s match with six players who have yet to appear at a senior international tournament.

The six, along with Koke, who did play at this year’s World Cup, are part of the generation which have won the past two under-21 European Championships, meaning there is plenty of promise following the disappointment in Brazil.

Spain failed to get out of the group stage in the World Cup and while it prompted the retirement of veterans Xavi, Xabi Alonso and David Villa, it has now opened the door to these players with calibre.

“We are showing that we are a good generation,” Alcacer continued.

It was an especially notable night for Manchester United’s David de Gea, who ousted captain Iker Casillas in goal and kept a clean sheet on his competitive debut.

“He didn’t have much to do but he did ensure that the team felt confident with him behind. The national team has plenty of quality at the back with De Gea, Casillas and Kiko Casilla,” Alcacer added.

BERLIN — World champions Germany will be desperate to bounce back with home win over Ireland next week to recover from a shock 2-0 defeat to Poland in their Euro 2016 qualifier on Saturday but in order to achieve that, they need to start scoring goals.

The Germans wasted a plethora of golden opportunities in Warsaw before slumping to their first ever loss to Poland, a stunning defeat that sent them tumbling down to third spot in qualifying Group D.

Failing to score is not a new problem for Germany, who encountered the issue as recently as this summer’s World Cup with coach Joachim Loew switching his formation midway through the tournament to promote Miroslav Klose as a lone striker.

The results were devastating for their opponents as the Germans raced to a fourth World Cup triumph.

But Klose cannot add to his record goal tally for Germany, having retired after the World Cup, and Loew has to figure out how his team can make their total domination around the rest of the pitch count in front of goal.

“We have to look ahead to Tuesday and Ireland and make sure we show a good reaction,” said Loew, who only had six players in his line-up from the side that started the World Cup final in July.

“We only played on one goal but could not score,” he said.

Injury absences

It would be far too premature to draw any conclusions on the state of the new German team given the large number of injury absences, including Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mesut Ozil and Marco Reus to name but a few.

The retirements of former captain Philipp Lahm, Klose and Per Mertesacker have also robbed the team of much-needed experience with 25-year-old Thomas Mueller being the most-capped player in the starting lineup on Saturday.

Loew started without an out-and-out striker on Saturday and with attacking midfielder Mueller up front. It was a similar situation in the early stages of the World Cup.

Newcomer Karim Bellarabi added plenty of pace down the flanks but failed to score from several good chances he carved out for himself. Mario Goetze, who also plays as an occasional forward, was equally as ineffective.

With only one natural forward, Borussia Moenchengladbach’s Max Kruse, in the squad but on the bench on Saturday, Loew will have to come up with a more effective plan if they are to beat Ireland in Gelsenkirchen.

“We just failed to score and given the amount of chances we had it was a joke,” Germany defender Mats Hummels lamented.

With three points from two qualifiers so far, Germany are well aware this is a long campaign and a maiden defeat to Poland, however damaging to their pride, is not a total disaster.

“It was just not our day,” Goetze said. “On Tuesday, we will win, get the three points and the table will look a lot different.” 

SOCHI, Russia — Lewis Hamilton cruised to victory in the inaugural Russian Grand Prix on Sunday, leading a 1-2 finish for Mercedes that clinched its first Formula One constructors’ title and stretched his lead in the championship.

Nico Rosberg placed second despite having to pit early in the race but now trails his teammate by 17 points in the drivers’ standings, with three races remaining.

Hamilton, who was fastest in practice and qualifying, won his fourth straight race and his ninth of the season. He was presented the winner’s trophy by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had pushed for his country to have a Formula One race.

“We’ve had an amazing week, Russia’s been so good to me,” Hamilton said from the podium.

“It was kind of surreal for the president to be presenting the award,” he added later.

The British driver started from pole but lost the lead when Rosberg beat him to the first corner. But Rosberg had to brake hard, ruined his tires, cut a corner and was then told by his team to let Hamilton back into the lead because he had gained an unfair advantage.

Rosberg replied: “I have to box because of the vibrations.”

After pitting to change tires, he was told by the team he’d have to go the rest of the race on that set.

Hamilton took the flag 13.6 seconds ahead of Rosberg. Valtteri Bottas was third in a Williams, 17.4 seconds back.

“I was looking after the tyres, managing the fuel, it was pretty straight-forward,” Hamilton said. “I really enjoyed the race and Russia has been one of my favourite races.”

Hamilton became only the fourth driver in Formula One history to win nine races in a season. He equaled Nigel Mansell’s record of 31 victories for a British driver. The other three with nine or more wins in a season were Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Mansell.

Rosberg said he was angry at himself for making the mistake.

“It was unnecessary. I braked too hard, too late. The tyres were square. I thought that was the end of the day for me,” the German said. “But the other half of me is so happy for the team, we are dominating the sport now.”

Bottas kept close to Hamilton until he began to lose pace about a third into the race.

“The rear tyres started to lose pace and then Nico got me, I didn’t expect him to come from inside in turn one,” the Finn said.

A ceremony to open the circuit included Cossack dancers with sabers and javelins and Russian Air Force jets drawing hearts in the sunny sky with their jet streams.

The Sochi Autodrom in this Black Sea resort was built around the Olympic Park used in February during the Winter Games, another project personally supported by Putin.

Also before the race, the drivers united to send a message of support to their injured colleague Jules Bianchi, who is fighting for his life following an accident at the Japanese Grand Prix one week ago.

The 21 drivers gathered together on the grid shortly before the start, and were joined by Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone and international federation president Jean Todt.

They stood behind the words “Jules, we are all supporting you” inscribed into the grid. 

Ferrari honours injured driver 

The entire Ferrari team has sent a message of encouragement to Formula One driver Jules Bianchi, who is fighting for his life following an accident at the Japanese Grand Prix one week ago.

The two drivers, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, flanked team chief Alberto Mattiacci, behind a sign reading “Forza Jules” (Go Jules).

The gesture came on Sunday, shortly before the inaugural Russian Grand Prix.

Bianchi, a Frenchman, drives for Marussia but is a member of Ferrari’s young drivers academy.

Ecclestone later welcomed Putin as the Russian president arrived at the circuit about one hour into the race.

Jenson Button and Kevin Magnusson came in fourth and fifth, respectively, in the two McLarens. Fernando Alonso was sixth in his Ferrari, with Daniel Ricciado and four-time defending champion Sebastian Vettel following in their Red Bulls. The Red Bull team surrendered the constructors’ title.

“Congratulations to Mercedes on the title, they deserve it,” Vettel said. Vettel is leaving Red Bull at the end of the season but has not announced his new team.

The ninth 1-2 for Mercedes this season is one short of McLaren’s 1988 record.

“It’s been a dominant season by them, so hats off to them,” Ricciardo said.

There are 100 points at stake in the last three races of the season — in the United States, Brazil and the double-pointer Abu Dhabi.

SOCHI, Russia — Formula One leader Lewis Hamilton was fastest in Saturday’s final practice for the inaugural Russian Grand Prix as Mercedes continued to dominate a weekend likely to seal the constructors’ championship.

Hamilton, who has a 10-point advantage over German teammate Nico Rosberg after winning the last three races, produced the fastest lap yet of the new Sochi circuit with a best time of 1 minute, 38.726 seconds.

The 2008 champion spun late in the session at the penultimate corner, but escaped without damage.

“It was a tremendous lap, he seems to extract the maximum out of the car at the moment,” Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff said.

“Somehow, Lewis seem to nail it on first lap, Nico seems to struggle a bit more, but this is just practice,” the German told the BBC.

Rosberg was second fastest, 0.290 slower, on a warm and bright morning at the 5.8km track that snakes around the Black Sea resort’s imposing Olympic Park venues used for this year’s Winter Games.

Hamilton, chasing his ninth win of the season on Sunday, was also fastest on Friday, although Rosberg was quicker in the morning.

Finland’s Valtteri Bottas was third for Williams in a session that was briefly halted after the McLaren of Danish rookie Kevin Magnussen stopped on track with a gearbox problem that will bring a five-place grid penalty.

Red Bull’s Australian Daniel Ricciardo, the only driver other than the Mercedes duo to win this season, was fourth fastest.

Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado failed to set a lap time with mechanics working on his Lotus.

Safety 

Formula One is planning to impose automatic speed limits as part of safety measures to prevent any recurrence of the sort of accident that has left French driver Jules Bianchi fighting for his life in Japan.

Race director Charlie Whiting told reporters at the Russian Grand Prix that he would meet teams on Saturday to discuss the proposals.

They included fitting “skirts” to recovery vehicles, the cranes and tractors used to remove stricken cars, to protect against the type of impact suffered by Bianchi when he crashed into one at Suzuka last Sunday.

The 25-year-old Marussia driver remains in a critical but stable condition in hospital after surgery for a severe brain injury.

Whiting showed footage of the crash to reporters at a lengthy briefing conducted with International Automobile Federation (FIA) President Jean Todt and Formula One medical officers.

The images showed marshals waving double yellow flags, the most extreme measure before a safety car is introduced, after Adrian Sutil had crashed his Sauber a lap before Bianchi lost control at the same place on the wet track.

Waved yellow flags mean a driver must slow and be prepared to stop if necessary.

Whiting said Bianchi had slowed as required, without divulging by how much, and indicated some had shed less speed than others.

He had come to the conclusion, he added, that it was “probably better to take the decision to slow down away from the drivers” in future.

Whiting indicated this could be done through what amounted to a virtual safety car — using the existing GPS-controlled systems to slow the entire field without actually bringing the safety car onto the track.

In more extreme circumstances the safety car would be deployed as usual. 

Complete clarity 

“I think there are some things to learn,” said Whiting of the Suzuka accident. “We want to engage with all the teams and drivers to make sure we come up with good, sound and well thought through ideas.”

Whiting said they would seek “a way of trying to impose for want of a better expression a speed limit. It probably won’t be a speed limit as such but there will be I believe a way of controlling speed with complete certainty and complete clarity”.

He added that it was “highly unlikely” anything could be introduced this weekend.

“We have to ensure it works the same way on all the cars,” explained Whiting. “We will be exercising extreme caution as always.”

The Briton also clarified the events at Suzuka, from the moment the tractor was deployed to Bianchi being rushed in an ambulance with a police escort to hospital.

Whiting said the decision to bring the tractor on had been taken by race control and they had not considered it necessary to deploy the safety car immediately.

There was no immediate evidence of any mechanical fault being to blame for Bianchi losing control.

Whiting dismissed a post-race assertion by Brazilian Felipe Massa that the Williams driver had been screaming for the race to be stopped before the crash as the rain fell and the light faded.

He said Massa had merely informed the team that track conditions were getting worse.

Todt, a former Ferrari team principal, said lessons had to be learned “and we will because we cannot be faced with such a situation again. Each life is very important”.

Bianchi’s manager is Todt’s son Nicolas and the FIA president said he had himself known him since the driver was 15.

“My son believed, believes, a lot in Jules,” he said. “It has been very tough, it is very tough.”

AMMAN — The U-16 girls football team headed to Bangladesh on Saturday to play Group B Asian qualifiers that act as a qualifying tournament for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) finals and U-17 Women’s World Cup.

After Qatar withdrew from the event, Jordan will now start its matches on October 15 when it faces hosts Bangladesh before playing the UAE, Iran and India for the sole qualifying slot from the group. 

In 2013, the U-16 squad was eliminated from the AFC finals after qualifying for the first time. This time, the team’s coach Manar Freij is confident of the line-up’s readiness. “We know we have tough opponents but are optimistic of winning the group and will aim for a win in all our matches,” she was quoted by the local media ahead of the team’s departure.

The U-16 team drew its U-19 counterpart 1-1 in two matches this week. The squad had a training camp in Germany where they played a series of friendlies after a similar camp in Alexandria, Egypt.

The U-19 women’s team is also preparing for Group A Asian Championship qualifiers which will be held in Amman November 3-9
where it will face India, Lebanon and Uzbekistan. The squad hopes to qualify for the second time after Jordan was the first Arab team to play in the 3rd AFC U-19 Women’s Championship finals in 2007. 

The senior women’s team is back home after it exited Round 1 of the Asian Games — tying Taiwan 2-2, losing to China 5-0 and suffering a crushing 12-0 defeat to Japan. Earlier this year, they had a similar early exit at their first Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women’s 2014 Asian Cup where they were also the only Arab team to have ever qualified.

Jordan will host the 2016 U-17 Women’s World Cup and is now gearing up to implement executive plans to prepare four stadiums as well as 16 practice fields. Jordan beat bids from Uruguay, South Africa, Ireland and Bahrain. 

AMMAN — The National football team plays its first friendly against Kuwait on Friday in the final phase of preparations for the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) 2015 Asian Cup in Australia. The team will face Kuwait again on October 13 as the two matches are expected to give head coach Ray Wilkins a better idea of the line-up named and amend any gaps in the run up to the Asian Cup. While Wilkins has recalled players who had been out of the last line-up under Egyptian head coach Hossam Hassan, goalie Amer Shafie was again removed after being recalled most likely for disciplinary admin issues. Wilkins added two other goalies to his squad this week underlining the move “was aimed at having a good choice of players for the team’s future and giving promising players a chance to gain more competitive experience”. The coach’s choice and players’ preparedness will now be under scrutiny as Jordan plays two matches against the guest team and also faces the U-23 team on Saturday. The U-23 team has just returned from the Asian Games after an impressive run. In preparation for the two friendlies, Wilkins was quoted by the local media as saying: “Players are expected to give their utmost, and head into the upcoming matches with a competitive spirit and taking on the challenge to win.”