Young Socceroos announced for COTIF tournament

Young Socceroos Head Coach Paul Okon today named a 20-Player Squad for the upcoming COTIF U-19 International Football tournament which will be held in L'Alcúdia, Spain from 12-21 August 2013.

Young Socceroos Head Coach Paul Okon today named a 20-Player Squad for the upcoming COTIF U-19 International Football tournament which will be held in L'Alcúdia, Spain from 12-21 August 2013.

Okon has selected 16 Australian-based and 4 players from overseas-based clubs.

Anthony Bouzanis and Hagi Gligor were also members of the Young Socceroos Squad that recently competed at the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Turkey.

Okon is looking forward to the start of the new FIFA U-20 World Cup qualification campaign.

“This is the first stage of a new campaign with a new playing group,” said Okon

“We had originally planned to have a training camp prior to the tournament to have a look at a larger group of overseas based players to possibly have included in this squad, but due to a number injuries he have had to postpone that camp until later in the year.

“This (COTIF) Tournament is a very good one with four tough matches which include Spain and Mexico.

“This will be our first opportunity to develop our playing style and test ourselves against quality opposition,” concluded Okon

This is the 30th edition of the COTIF Tournament and will involve ten U-19 Men-s National teams from Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Spain.

All matches will be played at the Estadio Municipal Els Arcs De L'Alcúdia.

This will be the first competitive outing for this group of players who are looking to eventually qualify for the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup which will be held in New Zealand. The first stage of this qualification process is the AFC U-19 Championship qualifiers which will be held in Hong Kong from 3 to 11 October 2013.

Young Socceroos Squad List - COTIF Tournament, L'Alcúdia, Spain - 12-21 August 2013

Anthony BOUZANIS (gk) (Sydney FC, Australia) James BALDACCHINO (Western Sydney Wanderers, Australia) Nicholas COWBURN (Newcastle Jets, Australia) Christopher CRISTALDO (Melbourne Victory, Australia) Matthew DAVIES (Perth Glory, Australia) Ben GARUCCIO (Melbourne Heart, Australia) Christopher IKONOMIDIS (SS Lazio, Italy) Rafa JIMENEZ (Villarreal CF, Spain) Hagi GLIGOR (Sydney FC, Australia) Awer MABIL (Adelaide United, Australia) Peter MAKRILLOS (Stoke City, England) Stefan MAUK (Melbourne Heart, Australia) Jacob MELLIN (Adelaide United, Australia) Dylan MURNANE (Melbourne Victory, Australia) Christopher NAUMOFF (Sydney FC, Australia) Peter SKAPETIS (Queens Park Rangers, England) Nicholas OLSEN (Western Sydney Wanderers, Australia) Mitchell OXBORROW (Newcastle Jets, Australia) Luke RADONICH (gk) (Melbourne Victory, Australia) Riley WOODCOCK (Perth Glory, Australia)

as at Monday 5 August 2013

Staff Head Coach Paul Okon Assistant Coach Milan Blagojevic Assistant Coach - Video Analyst Jaime Gomez Goalkeeping Coach John Gorza Team Manager Simon Roberts Doctor Trevor Law Physiotherapist Cameron Dunkerley Massage Therapist John Kobiela

Group A Fixtures

Date Time AEST 12/08/13 18:00 02:00 Australia v Qatar 12/08/13 23:00 07:00 Spain v Saudi Arabia 13/08/13 21:00 05:00 Mexico v Australia 14/08/13 21:00 05:00 Saudi Arabia v Mexico 14/08/13 22:45 06:45 Qatar v Spain 15/08/13 19:00 03:00 Australia v Saudi Arabia 16/08/13 22:45 06:45 Spain v Australia 17/08/13 19:00 03:00 Qatar v Mexico 18/08/13 19:00 03:00 Saudi Arabia v Qatar 18/08/13 21:00 05:00 Mexico v Spain