Young Socceroos fall to Qatar

The Young Socceroos have gone down 1-0 to Qatar in their opening match of the COTIF International Tournament in Spain.

The Young Socceroos have gone down 1-0 to Qatar in their opening match of the COTIF International Tournament in Spain.

The match kicked off in very hot temperatures, over 30 degrees, and very high winds making conditions very difficult for both teams.

The Young Socceroos started well and dominated possession in the early exchanges, but in the 9th minute Qatar capitalised on a long clearance that gave Hassan a one-on-one with Australian goalkeeper Luke Radonich. Hassan slotted his shot past Radonich into the bottom right corner of the goal to take the early lead.

From then on Qatar was content to sit back and defend making it difficult for the Young Socceroos to find space and create chances.

The second half saw Young Socceroos Head Coach Paul Okon make a raft of changes. The Young Socceroos continued to move the ball and try and open up the game and were able to create a number of chances but unfortunately couldn-t get a goal to equalise.

After the match, Okon was positive about his new team-s first performance together.

“It was a difficult game that after Qatar scored they sat deep and made it difficult for us to penetrate their defence,” said Okon.

“This was the first game of the new Young Socceroos program. Participating in this tournament is the main starting point for the new program and these matches will allow me to evaluate a lot of players that are new to the national program.

“We now have another match against Mexico to look forward to,” said Okon

The Young Socceroos will face Mexico tonight in their second match of the COTIF International Tournament, followed by their remaining group matches against Saudi Arabia (15 Aug) and then Spain (16 Aug).

Match Details

Young Socceroos 0 Qatar U-20 1 (Hassan 9-) Estadio Municipal Els Arcs De L'Alcúdia, L'Alcúdia, Spain Monday 12 August 2013 Referee: Oscar Ruiz Garcia, Assistant Referees: Victor Fernandez Perez & Joan Mateo SENON. Crowd: 1,000

Note: matches are 2 x 35 minute halves and allow ten substitutions. As a result these are not considered full internationals

Young Socceroos line-up: Luke Radonich (gk), James Baldachinno, Nicholas Cowburn, Christopher Cristaldo (Ben Garuccio 36-), Matthew Davies, Chris Ikonimidis (Stefan Mauk 52-), Hagi Gligor (c)(Awer Mabil 36-), Makrillos (Melling 36-), Dylan Murnane (Mitchell Oxborrow 36-), Peter Skapetis (Chris Naumoff 52-), Nicholas Olsen (Riley Woodcock 36-).

Coach: Paul Okon.

Qatar line-up: Naim , Al-Khalosi, (Kamal 47-), Ali, Hassan, Moein, Ahmad (Jassim 36- (Ibrahim 69-), A Madibo, A Omer, Alawi (Alyas 69-), Abdulrahman Ali Zain (A Alsadi 47-).

Coach: Félix Sánchez.