Positives for Qantas Young 'Roos
Qantas Young Socceroos head coach Jan Versleijen believes the future is bright despite the team's disappointing FIFA U-20 World Cup campaign.
Australia lost all three matches in Group E, against Czech Republic, Costa Rica then Brazil, but Versleijen believes there were plenty of positives to come out of the tournament.
The biggest was the fact that five of the starters in the final group game against Brazil - arguably their best performance of the tournament - were eligible for the next FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2011.
The Qantas Young Socceroos kick off their 2011 qualifying campaign in Jakarta next month, so there will be little time for rest for Ben Kantarovski, Rhyan Grant, Sam Gallagher, Tommy Oar and Kofi Danning.
"In the last game we started with five players who will be available for the next U-20 World Cup so I think this is a real positive for us,'' Versleijen said.
"Kantarovski, Danning and Oar started every game, while Gallagher and Grant started the last one and they all showed great signs and they will be better for the experience."
"The players will go back to their clubs with more confidence and the challenge for them now is to break into their Hyundai A-League side or, if they already have, then to make sure they become a regular."
"It is so important that these players are playing for their clubs. I don't think enough of our players were doing that heading into the tournament, in many cases through no fault of their own, and I think it affected us.''
The Qantas Young Socceroos are in Group F for the 2011 qualifiers, alongside Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Singapore, Indonesia and Japan with the top two advancing and the best third place team from the three East Asian groups.
The first game is against Hong Kong on 1 November at Bung Karno Stadium, Jakarta.
Along with the five 'younger' players, young trio James Virgili (Newcastle Jets) and AIS pair Brendan Hamill and Trent Sainsbury spent a week with the squad during their pre tournament camp in Cyprus and featured in the friendly game against England.
"The three young boys came into camp for experience as well as to give us some more numbers and it was a great experience for them also,'' Versleijen said.
"They didn't look out of place at training and they did well in the England game and Virgili was already on standby for this squad.''
With none of the players having featured at a World Cup, Versleijen said the class of 2009 would benefit hugely from the experience, and commended them for their attitude.
"We had much higher expectations going into the tournament, we wanted to at least get out of the group stage, but despite the fact that we didn't achieve that I think the players walk away having improved as footballers and better for the experience,'' Versleijen said.
"We tried to play a certain way and while the results indicated that we weren't successful, we improved in each of the games as a team and the players will feel more confident individually."
"I must congratulate the players and the staff, because it was a great camp and everybody was professional and worked hard. It was really unfortunate not to come away with anything because we really deserved to.''