Ammon News - By Aline Bannayan/ Jordan Times

AMMAN — The national women’s football team is preparing to play the ASEAN Women’s Football Championships, which will be held in Mandalay City, Myanmar, from September 9-22.

Jordan, Australia and Japan have been invited to compete this year, in a bid by the organiser to improve the quality of the regional tournament.

Defending champions Vietnam are in Group A, together with arch rivals Thailand, Malaysia, Australia U-19s and Jordan.

Group B features Japan U-23, Laos, the Philippines, Indonesia and the host Myanmar.

Jordan is now 53rd in FIFA rankings, and 12th in Asia. The Kingdom lately hosted the Asian Cup 2014 Group A qualifiers and moved to the May 2014 finals to join titleholders Australia, Japan, China, and South Korea. Hosts Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand have qualified to the final, where the top five teams move on to the 2015 World Cup in Canada.

Jordan also has the West Asian Championship on its agenda, which was postponed from April. Jordan won the first two titles in 2005 and 2007, was runner-up in 2009 and came fourth in 2011.

The girls’ U-16 is also busy, as the team start the countdown to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) finals set for September 19. They had a training camp in Turkey and Aqaba, and are planning friendlies against Bahrain and Uzbekistan in August.

Jordan qualified to the finals for the first time after leading Group A qualifiers in Amman. They beat Palestine 9-0 before overcoming Bahrain 4-0, as the top two teams from the group qualified.

Qualifiers from the groups 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.

Jordan was drawn in Group B alongside North Korea and Taiwan. Group A includes China, Australia and Bahrain, Group C has South Korea, Thailand and Uzbekistan, and Group D will see Japan, Iran and Guam competing.

The top team from each group moves to the semis and the three top teams move to the U-16 World Cup in Costa Rica.

Women’s football has done fairly well on the regional scene. In 2006, Jordan became the first Arab team to qualify to the 3rd AFC U-19 Women’s Championship finals.