Uruguay: Pereira 22’, Stuani 42’, Lodeiro 69’, Rodriguez 78’, Cavani 90+2’
Man of the match: Egidio Arevalo Rios (Uruguay)
AMMAN // The biggest game in Jordan’s football history was over by half time. Hossam Hassan, the Jordan coach, had promised that his side would feed off the passion of the crowd and unsettle Uruguay, but the South Americans kept their composure, held the hosts at arm’s length and picked them off.
Once Christian Stuani added a second four minutes before the break, next week’s second leg in Montevideo had been relegated to the status of a formality.
Jordan was the last of the 11 Arab nations in the Asian Football Confederation with a chance to play in the 2014 Brazil World Cup. By the time Russia 2018 rolls around, it will have been a dozen years since one of the AFC’s Arab nations reached football’s grand event – Saudi Arabia in 2006.
There were glimmers of hope for Jordan – a surge and long-range shot from Adnan Hassan after three minutes that Martin Silva saved awkwardly, after a slight deflection; a mis-hit cross from Odai Al Saifi that Silva stumbled to turn around the post; the occasional flurry of neat passes. But Uruguay always looked the classier, as though they were simply waiting for the early storm to die out before striking.
Luis Suarez, who had been roundly booed before kick-off, was a constant menace, buzzing with energy and purpose, frequently finding space on the right. He had already come close to playing in Stuani when his 22nd-minute cross found Edinson Cavani at the back post. Cavani’s header was saved by Mohammed Shatnawi, who seemed startled to find the ball coming towards him, flinging himself to his right and shovelling the ball left, where Maxi Pereira nudged in.
The decisive second came four minutes before half time. Cavani dummied a throw-in from the left to create space for Nicolas Lodeira, the creator brought in by Oscar Tabarez for Walter Gargano as the only outfield change from the side that beat Argentina last month.
Lodeira waited and slipped a clever pass to the back post where Stuani arrived to roll the ball between Shatnawi’s legs.
Prince Ali bin Hussein, president of Jordan’s football confederation, had been presented to the teams before kick-off. The arrival of King Abdullah, shortly after half time, briefly lifted a crowd that had sunk into near silence and that, in turn, seemed to spark thoughts of an improbable revival. Six minutes into the second period Adnan Hassan sent in a dangerous low ball from the right and from close range Ahmed Ibrahim shot wide.
The substitute Musab Al Laham then went down in the box and, amid raucous appeals, was booked for diving; Jordan may wonder why Luis Suarez, who had twice gone sprawling without fouls being given, had not been similarly sanctioned.
But too often a vital pass went astray, or a ball went uncontrolled, or the tireless Egidio Arevalo Rios mopped up, and gradually the crowd’s frustration mounted. Amid the grumbles came a third, Suarez sliding in Cavani, who rounded Shatnawi and, eschewing a shot from a narrow angle, cut the ball back for Lodeiro to sweep into the roof of the net from the edge of the box.
As Jordan’s defence crumbled, Cristian Rodriguez banged in a fourth, before a Cavani free-kick made it five, a superb goal that only confirmed what had long been obvious: Uruguay will be at next summer’s World Cup, where they will be one of the eight seeded sides.
Jordan, meanwhile, have a unenviable trip to Montevideo; all they have to play for is the avoidance of further humiliation.
sports@thenational.ae
