By Aline Bannayan
AMMAN - Jordan jumped three spots to move to 81st in the latest FIFA /Coca-Cola World Ranking which was issued on Wednesday.
Last month, the squad had a big leap of 23 spots to go up to the best rank since 2007 after an impressive performance that saw them reach the quarters of the 14th Asian Cup.
In the latest rankings, Jordan is now 7th among Arab and 8th among Asian teams. They are now looking ahead to the World Cup qualifiers later this summer.
The latest ranking saw world and European champs Spain leading followed by the Netherlands, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, England, Uruguay, Croatia, Portugal and Greece.
Among Asian Football Confederation teams, Japan who were crowned Asian champs for the fourth time hold the top spot at 15th, while Australia is 21st and South Korea 29th. They are followed by Iran (43), China (76), Uzbekistan (77), Saudi Arabia (79) and Jordan.
Top Arab teams are led by Egypt (35), Tunisia (45), Algeria (55), Morocco (66), Libya (71), Saudi Arabia (79) and Jordan.
The national team squad is scheduled to regroup on March 22 and will travel to Sharjah, the UAE for a friendly alongside Iraq, El Salvador, and Kuwait in the first phase of preparations for World Cup qualifiers.
Jordan national Team Manager Osama Talal, quoted in Al Ghad daily, said all was on track for the four-team tourney and that the technical manager Adnan Hamad was following up league matches for potential changes to the line-up.
‘’The squad will be finalized soon for upcoming duty,’’ he added.
Jordan is on a high note after the last Asian Cup, which they reached for only the second time since 1972. In 2004, they also made it to the quarters and jumped to the best ever FIFA rank of 37th in August the same year.
Meanwhile, Al Ghad reported that the Jordan Football Association (JFA) has requested to host the U-19 Asian qualifiers alongside 10 other bidding countries. The draw will be held on March 30 in Kuala Lumpur and Jordan is seeded 14th after making it to the finals last time. The JFA has decided against the participation of the U-16 team although the squad was seeded 8th among 45 countries after making it to the finals for the first time last year.
The senior team is seeded 13th among 44 Asian teams in the World Cup qualifiers.
10 March 2011
Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/?news=35287.
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