Jordan starts countdown for Round 3 World Cup qualifiers

Jordan has started the countdown to the September 2 match against Iraq when Round 3 qualifiers kick off for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. The national team will play in Group A and will meet China on September 6 and Singapore on October 11. Round 3 has five groups of four teams playing from September 2 to February 29, 2012 with the top two from each moving on to Round 4. “The upcoming stage requires that all work together and exert more effort,” head coach Adnan Hamad was quoted as saying in Al Ghad daily. He underlined that the national team was open to changes and “the chance is always there for new players to join the national team”. “We hope to schedule a strong match which will engage fans and give our line-up the chance to test readiness and tactics,” he added. National team manager Osama Talar was quoted in Al Rai daily as saying that the coaches were closely monitoring all players and that the coaching staff was looking to schedule a friendly on August 16 or 17 against Qatar and a one against Uzbekistan towards the end of August after South Africa bowed out. Ten Arab teams qualified and will play in four groups. South Korea, Kuwait, the UAE and Lebanon play in Group B, Japan, Uzbekistan, North Korea and Syria in Group C, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Thailand in Group D, while Iran, Qatar, Bahrain and Indonesia play in Group E. Jordan is now 91st in the latest FIFA ranking. The team advanced to Round 3 after they eliminated Nepal in Round 2 with a 9-0 win in Amman and a 1-1 draw in Kathmandu. The qualifiers commenced after Asia’s 16 lowest ranked teams (based on their 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification record) played home-and-away matches with the winners advancing to Round 2 to join 22 higher ranked teams. The winners from Round 2 joined the top five direct entrants (Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia and Bahrain) in Round 3. It is the national team’s 8th time in the qualifiers since 1986 and the team has never managed to get past the third qualifying Asian group stages of the world’s premier football centrepiece. In 2006, the U-20 team scored Jordan’s biggest sporting success when they qualified to the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Canada. On the Asian scene, since 1972, Jordan reached the Asian Cup finals twice. In 2004, they made it to the quarters and jumped to the best ever FIFA rank of 37th. This year, they bowed out of the 14th Asian Cup quarters and improved their ranking to the best ever since 2007.