U-23 football squad to hold UAE camp

AMMAN — The Kingdom’s U-23 football team will hold a training camp in the UAE ahead of the Olympic qualifying journey starting March 25.

The camp is scheduled to be held March 2-13 and will include two matches against the North Korea side and another match against Nepal or a UAE club team. 

Head coach Jamal Abu Abed will finalise the line-up after the camp and it was reported that he was closely coordinating with Wihdat coach Abdullah Abu Zameh, as many U-23 players are also on Wihdat’s line-up who will play the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup matches during the same time.

In the U-23 qualifiers, a total of 43 teams entered the qualification tournament and will play in 10 groups of five or four teams.

Jordan will play in Group B, alongside hosts Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kuwait, hoping to qualify for the 2016 AFC U-23 Championship which will take place in Qatar. The top team from each of the groups in addition to the top second-placed team from groups that have five teams will move to the 2016 AFC U-23 Championship from which the top three advance to the 2016 Summer Olympics Football tournament.

Observers noted that the team’s preparations were hampered by other competitions including the Jordan Professional League.

Last month, when the League was on break as the national team played at the Asian Cup, the U-23 team played four friendlies losing to Manshieh 2-1, beating Wihdat 5-2, holding Faisali 0-0 and edging Jazira 2-1.

Last season, the U-23 team faced the same dilemma when they represented Jordan at the Asian Games. Despite a bumpy preparation period amid the busy agenda of the national team and club competitions, the squad was impressive and reached the quarters.

Similarly, the team took bronze in the inaugural AFC U-22 Championship after beating South Korea. The event, which has now been renamed the AFC U-23 Championship, saw Iraq beat Saudi Arabia to take the title.

Before the latest local matches, the squad hosted Oman — losing 2-1 and winning 1-0. They beat Uzbekistan 2-1, held Iran 2-2 and 1-1, held Kuwait 1-1 twice and Qatar 0-0. They finished second at the Palestine International Championship and hosted the England C squad in a historic match, losing 1-0.