Friendlies over, now for the World Cup

Jordan have completed their final preparations and are heading to the Chinese city of Shenzhen to take their place in the 2019 FIBA World Basketball Cup.

The city will host the Group G matches which also includes the Dominican Republic, France, and Germany, with the former up first on September 1 followed by France two days later and Germany on September 5.

Jordan’s American coach, Joey Stiebing, will be narrowing his 14-man squad down to 12 for the first match and will choose from Mahmoud Abdeen, Amin Abu Hawas, Dar Tucker, Jordan Desouki, Fadi Ibrahim, Ahmed Hamarsheh, Ahmed Obeid, Youssef Abu Wazneh, Mohammad Shaher, Zaid Abbas, Malik Kanaan, Musa Al Awadhi, Zain Najdawi and Ahmad Al Duwairi.

This is the second time that Jordan have made the finals, following their debut showing in Turkey nine years ago.

Jordan qualified by finishing third place in their Asian group with seven wins from 12 matches, and are joined by Tunisia as the only Arab nations. This World Cup has a record participation of 32 teams, eight more than the previous edition.