Taggart's 13th-minute chipped finish at the King Abdullah II Stadium on Thursday night allowed Australia to stay top of Group B with 12 points.

"It is important to end the year on a high and it's a tough place to come and history has shown how difficult it is for any country to come here," Taggart said.

"So we're all really happy with the result and I think we've still go a lot to go, and there's still a lot to build on."

Manager Graham Arnold was proud that his side was able to resist an attempted second-half comeback to record Australia's first victory over Jordan in the Middle East.

"We showed that we have a lot of fight in this team," Arnold said.

"They boys worked extremely hard and closed out the game well.

"Our structure was very good, our workrate was fantastic.

"This isn't an easy place to come and it shows in the past history.

"The Socceroos have never won here and we're the first to do it."

Goalkeeper Mathew Ryan's late efforts were crucial after Jordan started aggressively, particularly down the left where playmaker Jackson Irvine was deployed to make way for the returning Tom Rogic in the middle.

But Australia were the first to strike with Irvine setting up Taggart with a brilliant through ball.

The Hull City man threaded a perfectly-weighted pass between the opposing centre backs and the Suwon Bluewings forward neatly finished past goalkeeper Amer Shafi.

Irvine fluffed a glorious chance to double the lead off Aaron Mooy's corner in the 29th minute when the ball rebounded into his feet just outside the six-yard box only for him to smash it over.

After the break Jordan coach Vital Borkelmans brought on dangerous forward Mousa Mohammed Suleiman for midfielder Ahmed Sameer Saleh.

And the change nearly worked five minutes later when he rifled a shot over the top left corner of goal from just inside the top corner of the box.

Tariq Khattab then missed a golden opportunity to level when the unmarked defender headed wide from less than five yards out.

The hosts again went close with 10 minutes remaining when Hamza Aldaradreh rose to meet Mousa's free-kick, but Ryan made a terrific low dive to deny his header.

His athleticism was in vain though as the offside flag went up against Jordan.

The hosts continued to push, going close twice as the clock ticked down, and they could have snatched a point in extra time.

Aldaradreh rose to meet Yaseen Al-Bakhit's cross with only Ryan to beat, but he sent his header over.

Ryan praised his back four, but was nonplussed about his denying Aldaradreh.

"If there was VAR in that situation, because there wasn't a goal, maybe they would have played on and maybe the save would have counted," he said.

"It's nice to be sharp in that moment, but it didn't count in the end."

Australian Associated Press