U-23 team prepares for AFC U-23 Championship

AMMAN — Jordan’s U-23 team is set to play Iraq in a friendly as it prepares for the 2nd Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Championship, which also serves as Asia’s qualifying tournament for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The squad faced Wihdat, Jazira, Faisali and Shabab Urdun in friendlies this month as coach Jamal Abu Abed underlined “matches had served their purpose”. The coach underlined defensive and offensive tactics had improved and added the regrouping had helped ensure “team cohesiveness”. Team officials said that the line-up would not be finalised until mid-December after the final training camp.

The Kingdom qualified to the U-23 Championship after it topped Group B qualifiers in Amman as Jordan held Kuwait 3-3, beat Kyrgyzstan 4-0 and Pakistan 5-0 to advance.

Jordan got a tough draw at the 16-team championship set for January 12-30, 2016 in Qatar where it will play in Group D next to Australia, the UAE and Vietnam.

The Jordan Football Association (JFA) recently assessed national team line-ups and staff after most teams were eliminated from their receptive Asian qualifiers. Those include U-23 and U-19, the U-16 boys and women’s teams who were all eliminated echoing earlier concerns by observers.

Despite a technical issue causing their elimination from the 1st West Asian Championship, the JFA expressed confidence in the U-23 team’s staff and announced coach Abu Abed would stay and prepare for the upcoming agenda. Misinterpretation of regulations cost the team qualification on points at the 1st West Asian Championship. After defeating Yemen 3-1, losing 2-1 to Qatar, assuming Palestine’s results were scrapped after it was eliminated from the competition, so the team’s reserves played as Jordan lost 1-0 to Palestine and ended up fourth in the group, allowing Yemen, the only team they beat, to advance as best second placed team.

In the inaugural AFC U-22 Championship (now renamed the AFC U-23 Championship), the U-23 team beat South Korea to take bronze, as Iraq beat Saudi Arabia to take the title.

The team had a modest preparation period hampered with no training camps and no serious friendlies. In 2014, the U-23 squad had similar circumstances when it represented Jordan at the Asian Games. It made to the quarter-finals despite a bumpy preparation period amid the busy agenda of the national team, as well as, local clubs.