World Cup Preview: #39 Jordan
Previewing Jordan's chances at the World Cup
Continuing on with previewing each of the 48 teams in the World Cup today, we are taking a deeper look at Jordan.
This is their first appearance at the World Cup. They came close to qualifying in 2014, losing to Uruguay in the inter-confederation play-offs. Jordan has been on the rise over the last few years and is now well established as one of the top-tier teams in Asia.
For those who do not know, I have my own International Ratings, which I have built over the years, and you can find them here.
At the end of this series, I will post my final rankings before the World Cup begins. In addition, I will be simulating the World Cup, which will likely be released the week before the tournament starts.
I will go in reverse order of my rankings, starting with my lowest-rated team and working up to my top-ranked team.
This will simply be a breakdown of each team. I will save my analysis for how they match up with each team for my group previews, which will come out a little closer to the week of the World Cup.
In case you missed it, check out my previous previews:
How did they get here?
Asian World Cup qualifying consists of essentially five rounds.
Jordan cruised through a pretty easy second-round group, winning four of their six matches, edging out Saudi Arabia for first place on goal difference.
Second Round Qualifying
They were placed in Group B for the third round of qualifying, which included some decent teams. They narrowly beat Iraq to finish second and qualify for the World Cup.
Third Round Qualifying
Jordan Stats
All data is from Footystats.org
Many people may not remember, but Jordan went on a magical run at the 2024 Asian Cup, reaching the final before losing to Qatar, who were awarded three penalties during the match.
image via Opta the Analyst
Jordan is a very direct team that is not interested in maintaining high possession. In the Asian Cup, they averaged only 46.2% possession, and in their 2-0 win over South Korea, they saw just 30% of the ball.
Even with holding that little of possession, they are a deadly counter-attacking side.
During World Cup qualifying, they averaged 1.86 xG per 90 minutes with only 43% of the ball, but still took almost 10 shots per match.
Because they don’t hold much possession, they often defend in a low block and are really difficult to break down. They only allowed 1.12 xG per 90 minutes during World Cup qualifying. South Korea is the best team they’ve faced, and after their group stage match against them at the Asian Cup, they put up three pretty decent defensive performances against them.
Jordan Key Players
All data is from transfermarkt.com
Note: This is the projected roster, not the official one.
While Jordan has some impressive underlying numbers, they are one of the worst teams in the World Cup field in terms of talent.
Most of their players are either playing domestically in Jordan or in the Iraqi Stars League.
They have one clear go-to player in their attack: Mousa Tamari.
Tamari is having a really nice season for Rennes in France, scoring six goals and providing nine assists.
He has put up some decent chance creation numbers, but nothing that is going to blow you out of the water.
image via Scout Lab
Jordan Tactics
Because they don’t have a lot of talent, Jordan relies on counterattacks to create a lot of their high-quality chances.
They punished South Korea over and over again every time they faced them.
Here is an example from their Asian Cup Semi-final.
Jordan jumps the back pass, creating a 2 v 2 break and eventually scoring to break the deadlock.
They used their ball carrying and throughballs throughout qualifying, but doing that against teams miles better than them is going to be a challenge.
When they do get to the final third, they often are trying to create passing triangles out wide and then isolate their forwards in the box.
Here is a good example of how they scored their lone goal against Qatar.
Defensively, Jordan does not press high up the pitch. When they get pushed back into their own final third, they will sit in a very compact defensive block like this.
When teams are building up against them, they will typically sit in a 5-3-2 looking to win the ball around the halfway line to start a counterattack.
Being in a group with Algeria, Austria, and Argentina, these types of counterattacks are not going to come easy, so they will need to take advantage of the few they get if they want any shot at getting through.