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Jordan football teams prepare for Asian Games

By Aline Bannayan - Aug 28,2014 - Last updated at Aug 28,2014

AMMAN — The men's Olympic football team is set to host its Uzbek counterpart on Saturday in the final phase of preparations for the Asian Games as well as the 2016 Olympic qualifiers set for March 2015.

The line-up is still missing key players on club and national team duty, and there were calls to reconsider taking part in the Asian Games with this status quo.

Coach Jamal Abu Abed stressed that his aim was reaching Round 2 of the competition, after the team plays runners-up UAE as well as India in the preliminary round.

Earlier this year, the team hosted the England C squad in a historic match, losing 1-0. The team held Iran 2-2 and 1-1, Kuwait 1-1 twice and Qatar 0-0. Jordan settled for second at the Palestine International Championship.

Meanwhile, the women's football teams are in high gear as they prepare for upcoming Asian Games. 

The senior women's team is now on a training camp in Cairo as it readies for a mammoth task, having been drawn in Group A alongside Taiwan,  Japan and China. 

The team had a tough time earlier this year at its first Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women's 2014 Asian Cup, where Jordan was one of eight qualifying teams and the only Arab team to have ever qualified to the premier women's football competition in the AFC region.

Jordan lost to world champs Japan 7-0 after losing to Australia and hosts Vietnam 3-1 in Group A. The top two teams from each group and the best third placed team qualified to the 2015 Women's World Cup in Canada.

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