The Road to Egypt
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).
The Road to Egypt 2009 AFC Preliminary Qualifying Tournament (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) - Nov 2007 INDONESIA W 2-0 VIETNAM W 2-0 GUAM W 15-0 KOREA REPUBLIC L 0-4 * Top two in group advanced. Australia finished second and qualified for 2008 AFC U-19
AFC U-19 Championship (Saudi Arabia) - Nov 2008 THAILAND (group match) W 1-0 UZBEKISTAN (group match) D 1-1 JORDAN (group match) W 2-1 * Australia finished first in group and qualified for qtr-finals KOREA DPR (quarter final) W 2-1 UAE (semi final) L 0-3 * Australia finished in top four, ensuring qualification for the 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup
Qantas Young Socceroos Squad FIFA U-20 World Cup 2009 Egypt 24 September-16 October 1. Andrew Redmayne (gk) (Central Coast Mariners) 2. Daniel Mullen (Adelaide United) 3. Luke DeVere (Brisbane Roar) 4. Ryan McGowan (Hearts, Scotland) 5. Matthew Jurman (Sydney FC) 6. James Holland (AZ Alkmaar, Netherlands) 7. Tahj Minniecon (Gold Coast United) 8. Aaron Mooy (Bolton, England) 9. Jason Hoffman (Newcastle Jets) 10. Mitch Nichols (Brisbane Roar) 11. Thomas Oar (Brisbane Roar) 12. Nathan Elasi (Melbourne Victory) 13. Chris Herd (Aston Villa) 14. Kofi Danning (Sydney FC) 15. Sam Munro (Sydney FC) 16. Ben Kantarovski (Newcastle Jets) 17. Rhyan Grant (Sydney FC) 18. Dean Bouzanis (gk) (Liverpool, England) 19. Sean Rooney (Newcastle Jets) 20. Sam Gallagher (Manly United) 21. Alex Cisak (gk) (Leicester City, England)
Qantas Young Socceroos- World Cup Schedule 27 September v Czech Republic, 1845 local (0245 AEST) 30 September v Costa Rica, 1600 local (midnight AEST) 3 October v Brazil, 2130 local (0630 AEST*) * Daylight savings kicks in on Sunday morning
FIFA U-20 World Cup 2009 Egypt - Groups Group A: Egypt, Trinidad & Tobago, Paraguay, Italy? Group B: Nigeria, Venezuela, Spain, Tahiti? Group C: USA, Germany, Cameroon, Korea Republic? Group D: Ghana, Uzbekistan, England, Uruguay? Group E: Brazil, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Australia? Group F: United Arab Emirates, South Africa , Honduras , Hungary
For more information regarding the FIFA U-20 World Cup Egypt 2009, please visit www.fifa.com.