Hooker confident ahead of semi
Westfield U16 Australia Women's team coach Robbie Hooker is confident in his team's prospects of making it through to the final of the AFC U16 Women’s Championships in Thailand despite taking on current world champions DPR Korea in the semi-finals on Wednesday.
Australia progressed through the group stage unbeaten with wins over Japan, China and Chinese Taipei and Hooker has been delighted with how his team have played so far.
"They have been all good wins so far, however group matches are different to semi-finals and we are playing the current world champions in DPR Korea so we expect a tougher game. But the team and staff are confident," he said.
Hooker believes Australia's opponents in the semi-final are probably the toughest of the teams to make it through to the final four, but believes his team have had the right preparation to upset the world champions.
"All 4 teams have different styles of play. If I had to pick one team then DPR Korea would have to be the toughest, especially given they are world champions," he said.
"Monday was a relaxing day for the team. Tuesday we have had a good training session. We've looked at other matches that our opposition have played however with their group matches they didn't show a great deal."
"How we play and how we execute our own game is important rather than worrying too much about the opposition."
DPR Korea finished second in its group to Korea Republic which plays Japan in the other semi-final. Both matches will be played at Supachalasai National Stadium in Bangkok.