Five Newcastle Jets players have been selected in the Young Socceroos squad for the AFC U-19 Championship.
Five Newcastle Jets players have been selected in the Young Socceroos squad for next month-s AFC U-19 Championship which will be held in the United Arab Emirates.
Joshua Brillante, Connor Chapman, Jack Duncan, Mitchell Oxborrow and Adam Taggart have all been selected to take part in the tournament that commences on November 1.
The AFC U-19 Championship also doubles as the qualifying tournament for next year’s Under 20 FIFA World Cup in Turkey. All four semi-finalists in the UAE will progress through to the World Cup.
Qantas Young Socceroos Head Coach Paul Okon included thirteen players from the ranks of the Hyundai A-League Clubs and ten overseas based players in his 23-player squad announced today.
Having worked with this group of players intensely for the past five months, Okon is looking forward to the upcoming tournament.
“We had a thorough process in selecting this squad with everyone having an opportunity to show themselves through training and match situations,” said Okon.
“There is a good mix of local and overseas-based players, and there were plenty of tough decisions that had to be made when settling on the final group.
“Our preparation for this tournament has been great with plenty of match practice. In particular, to be able to use the majority of these players at the AFC U-22 qualifiers in Indonesia in July gave us good competitive matches under tournament conditions which will serve us well once we get to the UAE.
“Whilst we know it will be a difficult challenge, I am confident that we have a strong-enough squad to progress from the group stage to the quarter-finals which will then come down to that one important game for us to perform in to qualify for the World Cup,” concluded Okon.
The Qantas Young Socceroos will assemble in the UAE this weekend and will finalise their preparations for the tournament with an international friendly against the Korea Republic on Tuesday. The Qantas Young Socceroos have been drawn in Group D of the AFC U-19 Championship and will play their opening match against Qatar on Sunday 4 November (kick-off 3:00pm local, 10:00pm AEDT ) followed by Syria Tuesday 6 November (kick-off 7:00pm local, 2:00am AEDT and Saudi Arabia in their final group match on Thursday 8 November (kick-off 5:00pm local, 12:00am AEDT).
The top two teams from each group of the AFC U-19 Championship 2012 will progress to the knockout stage (quarter-finals) and the four winners of the quarter-finals will then play in the semi-finals with the winners advancing to the final. The semi-finalists will also automatically qualify for the FIFA U-20 World Cup which will be held in Turkey in June/July 2013.
The five Jets players will be available for selection for Friday night’s game against Melbourne Victory, but will then miss the next two games at a minimum.
