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Ammon News - by Aline Bannayan | JT
AMMAN — The U-19 girls’ football team has arrived in Vietnam to play in the quarter-finals of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Championship qualifiers hoping to clinch the sole qualifying slot to the Asian finals.

The competing teams have been divided into two groups with the top two in each group facing off and the winner moving to the continent’s finals.

Jordan will play in Group A with Thailand, Uzbekistan and Iran, while Group B includes Vietnam, India, Taiwan and Myanmar.

The Kingdom’s team qualified to the quarter-finals after they hosted the preliminary round qualifiers in which they beat Iran 3-2, Tajikistan 3-0 and Palestine 8-0.

They are now set to play their first match against Thailand on December 2, before facing Uzbekistan (December 4) and Iran (December 6).

Following a week-long training camp coach Munir Abu Hantash was quoted in the local media as saying that the team’s task was hard. “There is only one slot for the teams competing but we are in high spirits after leading our group in the qualifiers. We are thankful for the Jordan Football Association’s (JFA) support,” he added.

Jordan is hoping to make it to the finals for the second time. In 2006, Jordan became the first Arab team to qualify to the 3rd AFC U-19 Women’s Championship finals.

Recently, the girls’ U-16 team reached the Asian finals after leading Group A Asian qualifiers in Amman. Jordan beat Palestine 9-0 before overcoming Bahrain 4-0 as the top two teams from the group qualified to the Asian finals set for November 2013.

The group qualifiers will join Japan, North Korea, China and South Korea, who were the top four teams in the last edition of the finals won by Japan in 2011.

The JFA had regrouped the team six months ago and played two friendlies losing to Iran 2-0 before winning 3-1.

Meanwhile, the JFA has asked the AFC to host the U-16 Asian finals next year. They also asked to host Group A Women’s Asian Cup 2014 qualifiers next June.

The senior women’s team was drawn in Group A alongside Uzbekistan, Lebanon and Kuwait in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2014 qualifiers. The top team from each group will move to the finals to join Australia, Japan, China and South Korea.