Ammon News - JORDAN TIMES - AMMAN — The player line-up selected by the national team’s head coach, Hossam Hassan, was one of the main reasons behind Jordan’s loss to Uruguay in the first leg of the World Cup qualifiers this week, according to football analysts.

Uruguay, a two-time World Cup winner, beat Jordan 5-0 at Amman International Stadium on Wednesday.

Sports writers, football coaches and former players interviewed by The Jordan Times on Thursday also attributed the loss to the vast experience of Uruguay’s players, but they all agreed that Hassan’s choices were not up to the game.

Taiseer Al Omeiri, head of the sports section at Al Ghad Arabic daily, stressed that the Egyptian coach did not analyse the match well before it started.

“Since Hassan took charge of the team, he has not stuck to a fixed line-up. During the past matches, he chose a different line-up every time,” he told The Jordan Times.

Omeiri noted that although the team was missing a number of players due to injuries and suspension, the head coach had a wide range of players that have enough experience compared to Wednesday’s squad.

“For example, [midfielder] Mohammad Mustafa played all nine qualifier matches. Why didn’t he choose him to play against Uruguay?” he asked, adding that the Uruguay coach Óscar Tabárez took the match seriously by bringing with him all the players who play abroad.

In remarks after the match, Hassan expressed satisfaction with the players’ performance and took responsibility for the loss.

“I’m really sad [because of] the result, but at the same time, I’m satisfied with the performance of the players in such a difficult and decisive match,” the coach was quoted as saying on the Asian Football Confederation’s website after the match.

“We had to produce a good performance, as we were looking to get past Uruguay at home, and I take the blame for the heavy defeat,” said Hassan, who played for Egypt at the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy.

“There were some mistakes, mainly in terms of passing… positioning or scoring… however, we should learn a lot… from such big and crucial encounters, which will help us for the future,” he added.

“I can’t blame any player for the defeat, especially because we have a good team and promising players who are playing in the competition for the first time,” Hassan added, noting that the result does not “reflect our performance in the match”.

“The players played well and they managed to produce an organised performance, but the experience of the Uruguay players [enabled] them to take advantage of all their chances,” added the coach, who replaced Iraqi Adnan Hamad in June.

Issa Turk, who was the coach when the U-19 team faced Uruguay in the second round of group games in Canada in 2007, noted the team had a fixed line-up during the past three years.

“Although the stage Jordan has reached is an achievement by itself, the technical staff could have avoided this result by choosing more experienced players,” Turk argued.

Jeryes Tadros, the former national team striker, said some players on Wednesday’s line-up had only played with the national team one or two times.

“If the coach had selected players who have better experience, perhaps the team would not have lost the match with such a wide margin,” Tadros added.

Ahmad Sharif, a sports journalist, said the defenders made a lot of mistakes against high-class strikers.

“Strikers like Edinson Cavani [Paris Saint-Germain] will definitely take advantage of mistakes,” he noted.

Sharif said the team was not ready for such an important match.

Omeiri argued that the only solution is to find another coach who can choose players in accordance with the sports situation in the Kingdom.