AL AIN — Defending champion Australia made its worst ever start to an Asian Cup Sunday when it lost 1-0 to Jordan in front of a partisan crowd here.

Graham Arnold’s youthful side had expected victory in its Group B opener but it was undone by Anas Bani-Yaseen’s powerful first-half header from a corner.

It leaves the injury-hit Aussies with much to ponder ahead of Friday’s game against Palestine, when it will need a win to get its title defense on track.

Australia started confidently but its Brighton ‘keeper Mat Ryan made the first save when he kept out Yousef Rawashdeh at his near post after a mistake by Massimo Luongo.

Shortly afterward, Australia’s former South Sudanese refugee Awer Mabil, in his first competitive international, nearly opened the scoring but his close-range shot was blocked by Amir Shafi.

The youthful Socceroos had more than 70 percent of first-half possession but rarely threatened, while Jordan was intent on harassing in midfield and seeking chances on the break.

Its goal came from a corner on 26 minutes, when defender Bani-Yaseen escaped Luongo’s marking and powered his header into the top corner, prompting jubilation in the strongly pro-Jordan crowd of just under 5,000.

Suddenly Australia was rocking and three minutes later, it was grateful for Ryan’s finger-tip save as he pushed Baha Abdelrahman’s free kick onto the bar.

In the second half, Arnold brought on Rhyan Grant and then Chris Ikonomidis to find a way through Jordan’s defense.

Celtic forward Tom Rogic’s stinging shot was kept out by Shafi, before Ikonomidis’s attempt at a follow-up was smothered by the defense.

Rogic passed up a golden opportunity for the equalizer on 72 minutes, when he was free in the box but scooped his shot well over from Aziz Behich’s cross.

Six minutes later, the lively Mabil smashed one off the upright with Shafi beaten, before Ikonomidis’s header was scrambled off the line.

With three minutes to go, Jamie Maclaren had a goal chalked off for offside and with the last action of the game, Shafi pulled off a superb double save to deny Ikonomidis and Jackson Irvine, capping a desperately disappointing day for the Aussies and a joyful one for the Jordanians.

Big stage no problem for Yemen

Yemen will be making their Asian Cup debut when it faces three-time champion Iran Monday and while the players are set to be thrust into the limelight like never before the team’s assistant coach is confident stage fright will not be an issue.

Milos Brozek said that Yemen, the tournament’s lowest-ranked national team at No. 135, had nothing to lose when it faces the highly fancied Iranians in Abu Dhabi.

“Sometimes if you are somewhere for the first time you don’t really realize just how big it is,” the Czech said in a telephone interview. “We will show our best without any problems with nerves.”

The path to the 24-team competition was an unlikely one for a nation embroiled in a nearly four-year long war that has killed more than 10,000 people and triggered the world’s most urgent humanitarian crisis with the country on the brink of famine. Its journey has been a rare source of good news for both the country and its players, who play abroad because the war has forced the suspension of the national league.

“We have players from all over Yemen,” Brozek said. “Sometimes we talk with the players about the conflict but we keep the focus on football. We have had big support from Yemeni supporters around the Gulf and we see how the people support the players.”

It has not been easy for Brozek and Slovak head coach Jan Kocian, who only took over at the end of October. The pair had little time to experiment with tactics and formations and instead have had to focus on simply getting to know what the players could do, Brozek said.

And with most of the team scattered around the Gulf, logistical issues such as contacting players and clubs to get them to training camps gobbled up time, he added. — AFP