At the 21st century, however, Jordan began to emerge and improve, obtain significant result under Branko Smiljanić and gained recognition by qualified to 2004 AFC Asian Cup, where Jordan created two shocking draws over 2002 FIFA World Cup hosts South Korea and Japan, eventually stopped at the quarter-finals by eventual champions Japan. Jordan kept shocking Asia in the 2011 edition which Jordan once again, drew Japan and beating Saudi Arabia, before losing to Uzbekistan at the quarter-finals. The trend of success followed, for the first time in their history, Jordan have qualified for the final round of the FIFA World Cup qualifiers in the 2014 World Cup qualification campaign, reaching playoff but bowed down to a formidable Uruguay 0–5 after two legs and missed its World Cup debut. After that, the team's performance stagnated, with Jordan crashed out from the group stage for the first time in 2015 AFC Asian Cup, losing to Iraq and Japan. In 2018 World Cup qualification, Jordan also failed to repeat the feat of 2014 qualification.