In the early morning of February 7, Beijing time, the Jordan team defeated the South Korean team 2-0 in the semifinals of the Asian Cup, eliminating the favorite to win the championship while also achieving the feat of reaching the Asian Cup final for the first time in the team's history.
Jordan won this morning's match, with the Jordanian duo of Tamari and Nijmat shining brightly, and the Jordanians also put their team football to the fullest – running and scrambling with all their strength, attacking sharply, striking with their feet, and defending tenaciously...... After this semi-final, many fans even sighed: This is what football should look like!
Prior to this Asian Cup, Jordan was ranked only 87th in the world, even lower than the national football team (79th). What is it that makes this team, which was generally not taken seriously before the game, sing all the way to the final?
Jordan celebrates a goal according to Visual China
Once a game, Jordanian football was a "one-man team"
When it comes to Jordanian football, Chinese fans may be most impressed by the old goalkeeper Shafi before this Asian Cup. In the 2004 Asian Cup, the fledgling Shafi made a high block in Jordan's 0-0 draw with South Korea, and kept out the shots of South Korean stars such as Ahn Jung-hwan, Lee Dong-guk, Xue Qi-hyun, and Kim Jung-kyun with one magic save after another. Shafi, who was 21 at the time, also made a name for himself and became known as "Gulf Cech".
In that Asian Cup, the Jordanian team finally reached the quarterfinals, and drew 1-1 with the Japanese team in the quarterfinals.
Jordan's goalkeeper Shafi was once known as "Gulf Cech" (data map) According to ICphoto
Shafi has since played in the 2011, 2015 and 2019 Asian Cups. In the 2011 Asian Cup, with his outstanding performance, the Jordan team drew with the Japanese team and defeated the Saudi team, and successfully broke through from the "Group of Death". In the 2019 Asian Cup, Shafi faced the indiscriminate bombardment of the Australian team in his 140th game for the Jordanian team, and staged a magical two consecutive saves in the last minute to help the Jordanian team defeat the Kangaroos Army. It is worth mentioning that in the 2014 World Preliminaries, the Jordan team was also in a passive situation, relying on Shafi's continuous blocking of Yu Hai, Yu Dabao and Yang Xu's shots, and defeated Camacho's national football team 2-1 at home.
Therefore, the most impressive thing about the Jordanian team in the past is mainly the legendary goalkeeper Shafi, who is even called "a one-man team", and Shafi's light alone is enough to cover the rest of his teammates. In 2021, the 39-year-old Shafi announced his retirement, which also made no one optimistic about the prospects of the Jordanian team before this Asian Cup. But in the end, the Jordan team defeated the Malaysian team 4-0 in the group stage and drew 2-2 with the South Korean team, just to avoid the Japanese team in the 1/8 finals, and chose to lose to the Bahrain team in the final round and qualify for the third place in the group; In the 4 finals and semifinals, the Jordan team eliminated the dark horse Tajikistan team and the championship favorite South Korea team, and went all the way to the final.
The striker duo makes people feel like they're watching Barcelona and Argentina play
In this Asian Cup, Jordan's forward duo of Tamari and Nijmat impressed.
Tamari currently plays for Montpellier in Ligue 1 and is the first player in Jordanian football history to play in the top five leagues. He rose to fame at the 2019 Asian Cup, when he scored and made two passes in the group stage to help his team beat Australia and Syria in quick succession, and Tamari's performance caught his eye. It's a pity that the Jordan team lost to the Vietnamese team on penalties in the 1/8 finals, which deprived Tamari of the opportunity to show himself further.
Tamari (left) and Nijmat are Jordan's forward duo Pictured by IC photo
Tamari, who played in the Cypriot league, has joined Montpellier this season and has been performing well with three goals and three assists in 16 Ligue 1 games. In the semi-finals of the Asian Cup against South Korea, Tamari made one pass and one shot, and used his speed and breakthrough to disrupt the South Korean team's defense.
Compared to Tamari, who rose to prominence in the Asian Cup four years ago, Jordan's other striker, Nemaat, was not well known before. The 24-year-old only made his international debut in 2021.
However, the Doha national striker made a name for himself at the Asian Cup, scoring a hat-trick of assists in his opening game against Malaysia, and then netting in the group stage and semi-finals against South Korea, as well as in the knockout of Iraq. In this morning's semi-finals, Nijat once relied on his skillful foot skills in the penalty area to beat three defenders of the South Korean team, but unfortunately the final volley hit goalkeeper Cho Hyun-woo in the face. At that time, the CCTV commentator also sighed that if this goal is scored, it should be the best goal of this Asian Cup!
In the semi-finals, the waves of ground attacks set off by Tamari and Nemat became a visual feast, and even many fans exclaimed: "I thought I saw Barcelona and Argentina playing!" They have nothing to question the victory of the South Korean team, and even the South Korean team is convinced.
Tamari assisted Naimat for Jordan's first goal
Tamari scored the second goal for the Jordanian team
The Jordanian team made a historic Asian Cup final, and Moroccan coach Almota also contributed to it. However, what is less known is that the coach almost left class a week before the start of this Asian Cup. Before taking charge of Jordan, Almota was the coach of Qatar's club Al Saad and the Moroccan national team, leading the team to the Africa Cup of Nations. However, in June 2023, after Almota replaced Adnan as the coach of the Jordan team, the results were lackluster, losing 0-6 to Norway in the warm-up match, 1-2 to Azerbaijan, and 1-3 to Iran. At the end of last year, they were held to a draw by Tajikistan and lost 2-0 to Saudi Arabia. In the first 6 games of coaching, 2 draws and 4 losses, and in the warm-up match before the opening of the Asian Cup, the Jordanian team also lost 1-2 to the Lebanese team.
Jordan coach Almota according to Visual China
Fortunately, in the last warm-up game, Almota led the team to defeat the host Qatar team 2-1, which made the Jordanian Football Association temporarily shelve the motion to change the coach. Now they should be glad that they did not take the final step, otherwise, the "Jordanian miracle" may not be seen in this Asian Cup.
For decades, we have insisted on inviting foreign commanders, and have been deeply engaged in youth training and have borne fruits
With a land area of only 89,000 square kilometers and a population of 11.42 million, why can Jordan, a West Asian country, create a miracle in the Asian Cup and be only one step away from the championship?
Compared with Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine and other West Asian teams in this Asian Cup, who recruited naturalized players to strengthen their squads, the Jordanian team still relies more on local players. Only the striker Thigh Tamari, as well as Rhatib and Awad, are descendants of Palestinian refugees, but all three were born in Jordan and have a strong sense of identity with the Jordanian team. So, there is a lot of unity within the Jordanian team, there are no internal problems caused by naturalization in other teams, and the players are able to play every game as one.
Jordanian football has insisted on hiring foreign coaches since the 60s of the last century, and famous coaches such as Redknapp and Adnan have coached the Jordanian team. This allows the Jordanian team to follow the trend of world football and maintain a more advanced technical and tactical style of play. The team's current coach Alotta has brought the team a three-centre-back style of play, allowing the two wing-backs to start pressing high on the flanks of the front, and quickly put into the counterattack after breaking the ball, which is also the mainstream tactic adopted by many teams in European football at present.
In addition, the Jordanian Football Association attaches great importance to youth training, which has allowed the Jordanian national youth team to achieve good results in the Asian arena many times. In the 2012 Asian Youth Championship, the Jordanian national youth team reached the top 8, in the 2013 U22 Asian Youth Championship, the Jordanian team won the third place, and in the 2016 and 2020 U23 Asian Cup, the Jordanian team also reached the top 8. In the current Asian Cup roster, 18 players in the Jordanian team, including Tamari, are from the above-mentioned national youth teams.
Jordan celebrates victory according to Visual China
In 2019, the Jordanian Football Association also invited the famous Dutch youth training expert Zvers to serve as the technical director to build a youth training system for Jordanian football. Over the past five years, the Jordanian Football Federation has built a complete U15-U19 youth league system. Although the average age of the current Jordanian team is older, Jordanian football has accumulated a fairly strong youth training force, and there are many potential newcomers in domestic football. Zvers also led the wave of Jordanian football abroad, Tamari joined Montpellier, Neimat to play for Doha Nationals in Qatar, and a number of international players went to the Middle East and North Africa league for training, all of which were driven by Zvers and the Jordanian Football Association, and these players also broadened their horizons and accumulated experience after going out.
The Jordanian Football Association's years of deep cultivation in the field of youth training and decades of insistence on hiring foreign coaches have made this small West Asian country a blockbuster in this Asian Cup. Miracles never appear in a vacuum.
Red Star News reporter Jiang Shan
Edited by Cheng Li
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