POSTED: Monday September 28th 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Qantas Young Socceroos' road to Egypt

Qantas Young Socceroos Head Coach Jan Versleijen and his players had their first glance at Port Said Stadium in their final training run before the game on Saturday.

With
the Qantas Young Socceroos only hours away from their opening match in
the FIFA U-20 World Cup, captain James Holland held a players’ only
meeting yesterday to discuss the significance of the tournament and the
expectations of the team. 
 


“The feeling is great and I
think we’re definitely ready. We’ve worked hard in training and the
games we’ve played in the last week,’’ Holland said.

“There’s a lot of excitement
but in saying that we are very focused on the tournament as a whole and
particularly this first match against Czech Republic.’’

The Qantas Young Socceroos’ ‘Road to Egypt 2009’ started 22 months ago and has included 48 lead up games and hundreds of training sessions.

The qualification phase started in
November 2007 at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) preliminary
qualifying tournament in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Wins over
Indonesia, Vietnam and Guam secured a place at the AFC U-19
Championships.  That tournament kicked off in November 2008 in Saudi Arabia and, after advancing from a group that included Thailand, Uzbekistan and Jordan, the Qantas Young Socceroos beat
DPR Korea in the quarter finals to secure a FIFA U-20 World Cup berth –
although the Qantas Young Socceroos lost 3-0 in the semi final to UAE.

Qantas Young Socceroos Head Coach Jan Versleijen and his players had their first glance at Port Said Stadium in their final training run before the game on Saturday local time. 
 
A near capacity crowd of 18,000 is expected for the match which kicks off on Sunday evening in Port Said (0245 AEST Monday).

“When you come to the stadium and see this pitch, straight away you want to play. It’s really beautiful.
 
“I would also like to thank the people of Port Said for their hospitality, it’s been really great,’’ Versleijen said.

“We don’t have any injuries and we have 21 players fit and ready to play.

“We worked very hard with this team.  It’s taken well over a year to get to the World Cup.   Everybody who has come to this stage, being one of the best 24 countries in the world and once you come here you want to win.’’

Qantas Young Socceroos vice
captain, defender Luke DeVere is one of 11 players who’s been with the
squad since the first qualifying tournament in Vietnam, along with
Holland, Andrew Redmayne, Daniel Mullen, Ryan McGowan, Matthew Jurman,
Tahj Minniecon, Jason Hoffman, Mitch Nichols, Nathan Elasi and Sam
Munro.

“We started the qualifiers in Vietnam and we’ve worked hard
over the past two years to get to where we are now so hopefully we can
kick on from there and do well at the World Cup,’’ DeVere said.

“You don’t come to a World Cup to do anything else but to win
games and try and get to the final and win it – we’re not here to make
up the numbers.

“Everyone’s looking forward to getting out there and competing and doing our best and hopefully we can go all the way.

“Of the first squad we had when we started the qualifiers,
there’s only a handful that have made it all the way through, so
there’s a fair few guys who’ve rotated in and out of the squad but I
think we’ve ended up with a very strong squad.

All Qantas Young Socceroos matches at the FIFA U-20 World Cup will be broadcast live and exclusive on SBS TV (see www.sbs.com.au for full broadcast details).

ENDS

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Keywords · Jan Versleijen · Qantas Young Socceroos · Australia · James Holland · FIFA U-20 World Cup

Name: Bonita Mersiades
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