Faisali play Shabab Urdun as Wihdat lead

AMMAN — The 15th week of the 64th Jordan Professional League kicks off on Thursday with Wihdat still in the lead, with minimal changes in the standings.

During the week, most teams took a break as Faisali and Wihdat played the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Cup. Faisali were held 0-0 with Turkmenistan’s Istiklol Dushanbe in Group B while Wihdat started off with a 2-0 win over Bahrain’s Hidd in Group A making up for their elimination from the Asian Champions League — the premier Asian competition — when they lost 2-1 to Saudi Arabia’s Ittihad Jeddah. 

Locally, Wihdat now aim to secure their lead with their upcoming match against Hussein Irbid. Shabab Urdun held the leaders to 0-0 draw to stay second on points ahead of their match against Faisali who are third after a 1-1 draw with last-placed Asala.

Ahli are fourth after a 1-0 defeat to That Ras and next have a tough one with Jazira who are fifth after a 1-1 draw with Baqa’a. Ramtha are sixth after a 4-2 win over Sarih and next play That Ras. Kufrsoum lost 2-0 to Hussein Irbid and are now 10th ahead of their match against Baqa’a who are 11th.

During the past two weeks, Ahli downed Faisali 2-1 in league play and also advanced to the Jordan Cup final after they beat Faisali 1-0 on aggregate. In the other semi-final, two-time winners Shabab Urdun eliminated Jazira winning 1-0 on aggregate.

A long-time veteran and founder of the game in Jordan, Ahli were relegated to Division 1 in 2004 for the first time in their history. They were back among the Pro-League clubs in 2014, and finished 5th in 2015. Ahli are now back in the headlines and will play the Jordan Cup final against Shabab Urdun on May 5.

So far this season, Jordan Cup titleholder Faisali beat league titleholder Wihdat 1-0 to win the 33rd Super Cup. Apart from conceding the Super Cup, and elimination from the Jordan Cup, Wihdat now only have the league title up for grabs. The team has been league champ for the past two consecutive years.

Standings  
(Previous position in parenthesis)