POSTED: Monday October 26th 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Qantas Young Socceroos Squad Selected for AFC U-19 Championship 2010 Qualifiers

Qantas Young Socceroos Head Coach Jan Versleijen has selected a squad of 23 players for the upcoming AFC U-19 Championship 2010 Qualifiers which will be held in Bandung, Indonesia from 7-17 November 2009.

 

Included are Kofi Danning, Sam Gallagher, Rhyan Grant, Ben Kantarovski and Tom Oar who were part of the Qantas Young Socceroos squad that recently participated at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Egypt, whilst Mark Birighitti, Dylan McGowan and James Virgili were named in the Qantas Young Socceroos preliminary squad for tournament but missed out on final selection.

The bulk of the players selected formed the Qantas Next Young Socceroos squad that were runners-up at the recent AFF U19 Youth Championship in Vietnam. Karem Bulut, Chris Bush, Robbie Kolak, Dimitrios Petratos, Nikola Stanojevic and Lawrence Thomas did not make the trip to Ho Chi Minh City but have been selected in the current squad.

 

Qantas Young Socceroos Head Coach Jan Versleijen knows how challenging the qualification tournament will be, but is confident that the squad of players that he has selected will be able to make it to next year’s championships.

“We will have a tough task ahead of us at this tournament in particular against teams such as Japan and Indonesia who are always improving.

 

“A number of our players were involved at the recent FIFA U-20 World Cup in Egypt and the experience gained by them will be of great benefit to our campaign in Indonesia.

“We also have a variety of players, over a range of ages, within the group with some already playing in the Hyundai A-League, others in the National Youth League & AIS system, and a couple of players also playing overseas which brings different qualities to the selection.

 

“With all things considered, I am confident that the players that have been selected will be able to do the job of qualifying for next year’s AFC U-19 Championship,” concluded Versleijen.

The Qantas Young Socceroos will assemble for a short training camp in Sydney on Monday 2 November and will depart Australia for Indonesia on Wednesday 4 November to prepare for their opening match of the tournament against Hong Kong on Saturday 7 November.   

The top two teams from the qualifiers will progress to the AFC U-19 Championship 2010 which will be held from 1-16 November. The host nation for the tournament will be determined in November 2009 with the AFC Competitions Committee to choose between bids from China, Thailand and Indonesia.

 

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Keywords · FFA · Qantas Young Socceroos · Australia · AFC U-19 Championship 2010 Qualifiers · Jan Versleijen

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Name: Bonita Mersiades
Organization: FFA Football Federation Australia
Email:
Phone: +61 2 8354 5544
URL: http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/default.aspx?s=home

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