Coach satisfied with national team’s preparations

AMMAN — The national football team has played eight friendly matches this year in preparation for the joint Asian qualifiers, which could pave Jordan’s path to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and the 2023 AFC Asian Cup in China.اضافة اعلان

The matches were distributed  across two training camps.

During the first of the two, the Kingdom’s squad played five games; starting with a face-off against Dynamo Kiev in January, which ended in a nil-nil result. Jordan then won against Tajikistan (2,0) before suffering three consecutive losses; in a second match against Tajikistan (1-0),  another against the Russain FC Zenit Saint Petersburg (1-0) and  one against Uzbekistan (2,0).

A number of team members who play professionally outside Jordan could not attend the first camp but managed to join the second one.

Jordan opened the second training camp in Dubai with a tie against Oman (0-0), before moving on to win against Lebanon (1-0). The second half of the second training concluded on March 30 when the Kingdom won against Bahrain (2-1), in its capital, Manama.

Commenting  on the team’s performance in Dubai and Manama, Jordan’s technical coach, Vital Borkelmans, was quoted by the Jordan Football Association’s website as saying: “I am generally satisfied with the national team’s performance during the event. We looked ideal against Bahrain and deserved to win.”

National coach and football expert, Issa Al-Turk, told Jordan News: “Results were not satisfactory in the first camp but a number of new players  took part on a trial basis. The goal was to explore their abilities.” 

He continued: “This came in handy during the second camp when we saw an increase in the  level of cohesion between players...”.

Jordan will resume making its way through the Asian qualifiers with matches against Nepal, Kuwait and Australia on June 7, June 11 and June 15, respectively.

Jordan and Kuwait are currently tied for second place within , with a score of 10 points for both teams.

Australia remains in the lead of Group B (12pts.), followed by Nepal in fourth place (3pts.) and China in fifth (0pts.).