‘The result 20 years ago tells us Australia can be good enough’: Joeys driven by team of ‘99’s success

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Part of the Joeys’ preparation for the upcoming FIFA U-17 World Cup 2019 in Brazil has been learning about the past and how Australian teams have fared in this tournament before.

And one campaign sticks out more than the rest is the team from 1999, that was just a successful penalty shootout away from winning the entire tournament.

Les Scheinflug’s Joeys showed the rest of the world just how good Australian football can be, only denied an astonishing triumph by a star-studded Brazilian team.

It’s the heroics of that squad that have reinforced to the current crop of Joeys that anything is possible heading into the 2019 event.

“I started coaching a state team in 1996, many of those players like Shane Cansdell-Sherriff, Mark Byrnes, Bradley Groves, Jess Van Stratten, all went on to play in that team that went onto the final of the World Cup,” Joeys boss Trevor Morgan told socceroos.com.au.

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“Those results 20 years ago tell us that Australia can be good enough.

“It was a match against Brazil that decided who had a Gold Medal so why can’t we aim for the same things.”

And that’s exactly what Morgan’s 21-player squad are dreaming of as they inch closer to their opening group match against Ecuador on Sunday morning (AEST).

“We learned about the team from ‘99 that was in the final and had such a successful campaign, you can’t take for granted walking the steps that they took,” defender Jordan Courtney-Perkins said.

“There’s some real quality players and it’s an honour really.”

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Joeys group matches in Brazil

Ecuador v Australia
Date: Saturday, 26 October 2019
Venue: Estadio Olimpico, Goiania, Brazil
Kick-off: 8.00pm (local) – 10.00am (AEDT) Sunday, 27 October 2019
Broadcast: Live in Australia via SBS and theworldgame.sbs.com.au

Australia v Hungary
Date: Tuesday, 29 October 2019
Venue: Estadio Olimpico, Goiania, Brazil
Kick-off: 8.00pm (local) – 10.00am (AEDT) Wednesday, 30 October 2019
Broadcast: Live in Australia via SBS and theworldgame.sbs.com.au

Australia v Nigeria
Date: Friday, 1 November 2019
Venue: Estadio Bezerrao, Brasilia (Gama), Brazil
Kick-off: 5.00pm (local) – 7.00am (AEDT) Saturday, 2 November 2019
Broadcast: Live in Australia via SBS and theworldgame.sbs.com.au