Women's football team leaves for Laos friendlies

Women's football team leaves for Laos friendlies

AMMAN, Aug 30, 2013 (Menafn - Jordan Times - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --The women's national football team is set to leave to Laos for a training camp on the weekend, and will face its host in two matches as it prepares for the ASEAN Women's Football Championships in Mandalay City, Myanmar, slated for September 9-22.

Jordan will play Laos on September 3 and 5 in its final friendlies before heading to Myanmar, where it has been invited this year alongside Australia and Japan, in a bid by the organiser to improve the quality of the regional tournament.

The Kingdom will play in Group A with Thailand, Malaysia, Australia and the defending champion Vietnam. Group B will include Japan, Laos, the Philippines, Indonesia and host Myanmar.

Jordan is now 53rd in FIFA rankings, and 12th in Asia.

The Kingdom lately hosted the 2014 Asian Cup Group A qualifiers and moved to the finals to join titleholder Australia, Japan, China and South Korea, along with host Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand.

The top five teams will move to the 2015 World Cup in Canada.

Meanwhile, the U-22 football team was drawn in Group A for Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-22 Championship set for January 2014.

The Kingdom will play alongside South Korea, Myanmar and Oman as the AFC draw put Jordan, Japan, North Korea and Saudi Arabia as heads of the four groups.

Group B will include North Korea, the UAE, Syria and Yemen, Group C will see Japan, Australia, Iran and Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan China and Iraq will compete in Group D.

The top two teams from each group will move to the quarters.

The U-22's 15-match unbeaten streak came to an end on August 11 after a nervy 1-0 loss to host Qatar, as the team prepares for the AFC championship.

Despite the defeat, coach Islam Diyabat said he was satisfied with the squad's performance.

"We had the chance to test all the line-up and avoid any mistakes ahead of the draw for the Asian finals," he said.

Jordan had previously tied Bahrain 2-2 and 1-1, and won 1-0 twice. It also beat Egypt 4-0, Kuwait 1-0 and 2-1, Oman 2-1, Lebanon 5-0 and held Cyprus 0-0.

Jordan was the first to qualify to the U-22 finals after leading Group D qualifiers with a winning streak in June 2012. Jordan beat Uzbekistan 3-1, Nepal 3-0, Bangladesh 3-0 and Yemen 4-0.

In addition, the men's Olympic team will be regrouped on Monday as it readies to face the UAE in two friendlies slated for September 8 and 10, in preparation for Olympic qualifiers next summer.

Jordan played Lebanon in Sidon and lost 1-0 in its first friendly abroad.

Coach Jamal Abu Abed has named the line-up that will miss only players on duty with their clubs in the Jordan Cup's Week 5.

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