Ammon News - AMMAN - Jordan will play Iran on Wednesday in their second match at the 3rd West Asian Women’s Football Championship currently under way in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Jordan leads Group A after a 4-1 win over Bahrain in the opening match. Bahrain stunned Iran with a 1-0 win.

In Group B, the UAE beat Palestine 4-2 and the latter scored a crushing 17-0 win over Kuwait who are competing for the first time.

The top two teams from each group will move on to the second round starting Friday.

Following the squad’s training, Jordan’s coach Maher Abu Hantash expressed confidence in the players’ ability to top the group and reach the semis. “We have defeated Iran before. They are a good team and it will be a tough match,’’ he told the press.

Jordan Football Association board member Rana Husseini, the delegation head, also told the press that “players have the experience and confidence to repeat their win over Iran’’.

Jordan won the West Asian title in the 2005 and 2007 which was held in Amman. Last summer, the squad reached second stage qualifiers but failed to clinch the sole qualifying berth for the 2010 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women’s Asian Cup.

The national team made it to the FIFA women’s ranking at 51st after a previous provisional ranking. They are now the highest ranked Arab team at 52nd, leading Algeria (65) and Tunisia (69).

In 2005, Jordan was the first Arab team to qualify to the 3rd AFC U-19 Women’s Championship finals. In 2006 and 2008, they were eliminated from the qualifiers.

Jordan also was the sole Arab team competing at the Doha Asian Games in 2006 and won silver at the 3rd Asian Indoor Games in Vietnam in 2009.

* By Aline Bannayan/ JOrdan Times



** Members of the women’s national football team train for matches of the Asian Women’s Football Championship which is under way in Abu Dhabi (Photo courtesy of the Jordan Football Association)