Australia have found out their opponents for the Under 19 Asian Championship as they were drawn against Uzbekistan, United Arab Emirates and Indonesia it was revealed on Friday.
The tournament takes place in October and is hosted by Myanmar and the semi-finalists will advance to the Under 20 World Cup.
Uzbekistan present a difficult opponent, having qualified for the last edition of the Under 20 World Cup and their match on October 15th punctuates the group and could determine a lot.
Indonesia will also prove a difficult opponent for the Socceroos, as their closest neighbour it is sure to be an intense encounter and the Indonesians come in as the ASEAN champions.
UAE continue to rise in this age group, after hosting the last edition of the tournament, their quality has improved enough that they have qualified for the tournament on their own right.
Being in Group B means that should the Young Socceroos win or come second in their group they'll face the winner or runner-up of Group A which contains Myanmar, Iran, Thailand and Yemen.
Iran are certainly the strongest side, and as such winning the group is vital for Australia, as they would prefer to avoid Iran in the quarter finals, where the winner qualifies for the World Cup.
Australia's preparations start as early as this Saturday as the Young Socceroos head to the Central Coast for a training camp at the Mariners Center of Excellence running through to Wednesday.
That training camp will involve a match up against NPL NSW club Manly United at Cromer Park as the finale to the camp, that match will be open to the public.
The Young Socceroos will then head to the UAE in early May for another training camp where they will play two matches against Oman and then get a preview of their Asian Cup opponents as they play UAE twice in vital warm up matches.
Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2014/04/27/tough-draw-for-young-socceroos-in-asian-cup/
No comments:
Post a Comment