Jordan is a rising sports nation. No, really.

It is a country with lots of difficulties. Not much water, not much money, unstable/warlike neighbors all around them, refugees flooding the country every couple of years.

But Jordan can play a few games, now. Some of it may be related to the 2010 election to the IOC of Prince Faisal of Jordan; he has become a fairly prominent force in the Olympic movement, and certainly in the region.

Anyway, Jordan is now decent in basketball — arguably the second-best team in Asia, after China — and getting better in soccer. To the point that today they had a chance to move into a the top two in the final group phase of Asia qualifying for the 2014 World Cup, and the top two go to Brazil.

It did not turn out well.

With two games left in qualifying, Jordan could secure a spot in Brazil next summer by winning in Australia today and beating Oman next week.

Before the match, the coach was promising his team was ready. Which is what coaches say, of course, but Jordan had defeated the Australians 2-1 in Amman, last October, and had moved up to No. 75 in the world, a record high.

But it was a key match for the Australians, too. They were ahead of Jordan only via goal-differential; each team had seven points. A Jordan win, and Australia’s streak of making the World Cup would be in severe trouble and Jordan would be 90 minutes from their first World Cup trip.

So, a lot riding on this match, and hopes high in Jordan. Kickoff at noon, no doubt a whole country watching on television …

And Australia crushed them 4-0. Which got much less attention in the Jordan Times, as this spare, no-quotes story would indicate.

(In the West, significant defeats are bewailed, and the media goes looking for scapegoats; in much of the Levant and Orient, defeats are still ignored or buried.)

I felt a little bad for Jordan. The Jordanians had an actual chance, and it turned into a blowout. Things like that can impact how the populace feels about the government. About their football. About themselves.

The defeat also leaves the Arabian part of the Gulf region on the edge of not having a team in the 2014 World Cup. After not having a team in the 2010 World Cup, either. After having at least one Arab team from the region make every World Cup from 1982 (Kuwait) through 1986 (Iraq), 1990 (UAE) and 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006 (Saudi).

This time around, the UAE, Saudi and Kuwait didn’t even make the final round. And of the final 10, in two groups, Qatar, Iraq and Lebanon are eliminated. Jordan and Oman are fighting over third place in Group B, which means they are not quite dead, but pretty much so. No one else made the final 10.

Third place in Group B gives you a home-and-away playoffs with the No. 3 team in Group A, which will be either Iran or Uzbekistan, and both of those are serious teams.

And the winner of that playoff then faces the No. 5 team out of South America, which at the moment is Uruguay. The Asian team will not be favored to survive the encounter.

So. Not much in sports tougher than having your hopes raised … and then dashed. Exploded.