National football team returns
By a staff reporter

Jordan Times
March 28 2005

AMMAN – The national football team returned home on Sunday after losing
2-1 in a friendly match against the Cypriot national team in Larnaca.

Team officials headed by coach Mahmoud Al Johary said they were
satisfied with the performance of the newcomers to the lineup,
although the team missed many scoring chances.

Cyprus scored in the 9th and 29th minutes, before Hassan Abdul Fattah
gave Jordan its sole goal in the 80th minute to make it 2-1.

The lineup for the Cyprus match missed star players from Faisali
(due to their participation in the Asian Champions Cup qualifiers) as
well as professional players Hassouneh Sheikh and Bashar Bani Yasin,
both playing in Bahrain.

Jordan will next play Iraq on June 9, the Armenian national team Aug.
17 in Amman and again in Yerevan, Armenia, on Oct. 6, and Qatar Nov.
16.

This week, Jordan’s FIFA world ranking dropped one place to 42nd
from the highest ever of 37th in August 2004, compared to 96th in
August 2002.

Jordan is still 5th among Arab countries in the rankings (behind Saudi
Arabia, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia) and 5th in Asia (behind Japan,
Iran, South Korea and Saudi Arabia).

Jordan’s ranking shot up around 100 spots in two years after reaching
the 2004 Asian Cup finals for the first time in the event’s 49-year
history and maintaining a good showing in the first leg of the 2006
World Cup qualifiers.

The national team was revamped at the beginning of the year following
Jordan’s elimination from the first round of the World Cup qualifiers
as well as the finals of the Asian Cup in 2004. Well-known faces were
replaced by players mostly under 25 years of age with the hope that
they would have the consistency and competitive form when Jordan next
plays in the Asian Cup qualifiers early next year.

The new lineup held Norway to a goalless draw in a friendly match in
Amman earlier this year.

Hoping for long-term results, players who were no longer performing as
expected, including veterans like team captain Abdullah Abu Zame’h,
Mouayyad Salim, Haitham Shboul, Rateb Awadat and Amer Deeb, have
been replaced by not so well-known faces that made their mark in the
Premier League Championship.

Johary said the new lineup intended to have a median age of 26 by
2007, adding that the list was by no means final and would continue
to be assessed prior to the Asian qualifiers in February 2006.