Jordan hosts Nepal on Saturday as they begin their qualifying journey for Asia's berths in the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals in Brazil.
Jordan is hoping to achieve a positive result when they host 148th ranked Nepal in World Cup Round 2 qualifiers at Amman International Stadium ahead of their away match on July 28 while Nepal will be hoping to create history again by winning a Round 2 qualifier match.
It will be Jordon's 8th time in the qualifiers since 1986 and the team has never managed to get past the third qualifying Asian group stages while it is Nepal's first time. Officials hope the national side will reach the World's premier football centrepiece for the first time. Nepal meanwhile will be hoping to either draw or win.
Jordon is now 84th in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking and are 6th among Arab and Asian Football Confederation teams.
Jordan recently hosted a four-nation tourney and finished third behind Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Iraq were fourth. The team also held a training camp in Turkey where they lost to Syria 3-0, beat both Yemen and Turkish second division club Kartal 4-0.
In the World Cup qualifiers, Asia's 16 lowest ranked teams (based on their 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification record) played home-and-away matches with the winners advancing to Round 2 to join 22 higher ranked teams in home-and-away matches from July 23 to 28.
The winners from Round 2 will join the top five direct entrants (Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia and Bahrain) in Round 3 where they will be divided into five groups of four teams each.
On the Asian scene, Jordan reached the Asian Cup finals twice since 1972. In 2004, they made it to the quarters and jumped to the best ever FIFA rank of 37th in August 2004. This year, they bowed out of the 14th Asian Cup quarters and improved their ranking to the best ever since 2007.
In 2006, the U-20 team scored Jordan's biggest sporting success when they qualified to the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Canada.
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