Women's U17 start qualifying campaign
The Australian Under 17 women's team will commence their qualifying campaign tomorrow for the inaugural FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The Australian Under 17 women's team will commence their qualifying campaign tomorrow for the inaugural FIFA U-17 Women-s World Cup in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Australia have been grouped with China and Korea Republic in Group A with Group B comprising Japan, Thailand and DPR Korea. The top two teams in each group will advance to the semi finals with the three highest teams at the tournament qualifying for next year's World Cup.
The Australian Under 17 women's team made their competitive debut in January finishing second in the Australian Youth Olympic Festival.
“Both China and South Korea are well-prepared and good quality teams so it will be quite tough, however all our squad are raring to go and ready to commence the tournament,” said coach Mike Mulvey.
The Australian Under 17 women-s team is:
Sian McClaren (SA), Alisha Foote, Vedrana Popovic, Sophie Hogben, Casey Dumont, Tameka Butt, (all Qld), Jennifer Bisset (ACT), Danielle Calautti, Marianna Tabain (both WA), Elizabeth Sharpe, Melissa Redmond, Emily Van Egmond, Taleah Doyle, Rhali Dobson, Alesha Clifford, Jenna Kingsley, Kyah Simon, Samantha Spackman, Kirstyn Pearce, Samantha Wood, Stephanie Haim (all NSW)
A captain will be selected for each game from a leadership group of Kyah Simon, Sophie Hogben, Tameka Butt and Elizabeth Sharpe.
Australia-s fixtures are as follows:
Sat 10 March - Australia v Korea
Mon 12 March - Australia v China
Wed 14 March - Semi Finals
Sat 17 March - Final and third-fourth playoff
Results and match details will be posted at www.footballaustralia.com.au
The first FIFA U-17 Women-s World, which will be held in New Zealand in 2008, is the newest FIFA tournament and follows an enormous worldwide growth in women-s football in the last decade. The first FIFA Women-s World Cup was held in 1991 and the first FIFA Women-s U-20 World Cup in 2002.