E-Paper
Sign In
Jordan coach Sellami proud of his team after World Cup exit
Jordan scored in every game and were competitive, but errors due to inexperience cost them and will be the major takeaway from their debut on the global stage
- PUBLISHED: Sun 28 Jun 2026, 5:01 PM
Jordan will be better off for the experience from their maiden World Cup despite exiting the tournament in the group phase following three defeats, coach Jamal Sellami said after a 3-1 loss to Argentina in Dallas on Saturday.
Jordan scored in every game and were competitive, but errors due to inexperience cost them and will be the major takeaway from their debut on the global stage, Sellami told a press conference after the loss to the reigning world champions.
Recommended For You
“The most important thing we can come away with is for the players to have experienced firsthand what they have trained for all these years. They will be better for it,” he said.
“I was telling my players to develop themselves and improve their fitness as they will be up against high level teams, which requires a higher level of fitness. We worked on improving their skills and they will now be much better equipped to deal with such competitions in the future.”
Sellami said there is no margin for errors in an event as big as the World Cup.
“They played three matches and were able to score goals in every one of them. But small errors were very costly and it was due to this that we conceded goals. When you face the world champions, errors will cost you,” the Moroccan coach said.
Two of Argentina's three goals came from free-kicks and on both occasions Jordan suffered due to the mistakes from their goalkeeper Yazeed Abulaila.
But Sellami was happy that Jordan were the only team in Group J to have scored a goal against three-time world champions Argentina who had beaten Algeria 3-0 and Austria 2-0 in their previous games.
“Argentina are one of the strongest teams and have excellent players. We were the only team to score against them (in the group phase). We knew how to play against them,” he said.
“We are out of the competition but proud of what we have achieved as a first experience. We went in wanting to learn as many lessons as possible and we did that.”