AFC U-16 Championships 2010 qualification currently in progress. Group H is currently taking place in Canberra with Australia, Laos and Malaysia. Each team plays each other twice, the group winner advances to next year's finals. The first set of matches have been pretty crazy. Australia beat Laos 7-0 and Laos beat Malaysia 6-0, but then Australia and Malaysia drew 2-2. Another win should secure qualification. The four semi-finalists from next year's tournament qualify for the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Mexico in 2011.
That's how we were knocked out of the last U/17's Tourny. A couple of big wins then a draw when we should have won and we ended up being knocked out on countback. Hoping that draw doesn't hurt us this time. We should still get through comfortably.
It makes it just as disappointing as we had a 2-0 lead in that match too. http://www.footballaustralia.com.au...=insideffa_newsfeatures_newsitem_new&id=29922
Apparently we won 6-0 today against Laos again. Does anyone know why we're in such a small group compared to the others?
That puts us as almmost unbeatable - Malaysia need to defeat Laos and then defeat us in the final game AND overturn a 19 goal defficit between us (or is the decider just results between the 2??) I asked the same thing in the thrread in All Asia?
It's pretty odd, but with 45 teams you were always going to have to have a funky way of allocating qualification places. Getting even groups is tricky - 9 groups of 5 is the most logical, but 16 places into 9 doesn't go. The other alternative is 5 groups of 9, but that's way too many matches. If they were willing to have playoffs it could be done a lot cleaner, but each group is being played in a different country which makes that option logistically complicated. I doubt most of the countries (Australia included) have large budgets to fly their U-16s teams around Asia.
this is the group of players that were selected on talent and not physique am i right? i remember reading an article about these boys and that a few of them are supposed to be some of our best youngsters ever? sounds promising
10 groups of 4 or 5 with top team progressing and 2nd place going into playoffs gives 15 teams (+host = 16). Still play each group as a mini tournament in one location, and all teams get a second chance. No matter how convoluted the process is all groups need to ba "approximately" the same size and have the same qualifying criteria to be fair. Not have one group which is completely different to the others.
The host is decided from the teams that qualify, rather than the other way around, so there are 16 spots up for grabs. There's nothing inherently unfair about the 3-team group - you just halve the number of teams from each pot, and also the number of qualifying places available, and double the games against each opponent. Number of games remains the same, slots/quality team ratio stays the same. That's arguably fairer than having half the the teams fighting out against four opponents rather than three for the same number of qualifying spots. I agree playoffs would help regardless of which model you used, but the bottom line is that playoffs can't be done without drastically increasing the amount of travel for the teams involved. Imagine you're the Laos coach - you've flown (say) 20 kids plus 5 support staff out to Australia. Suddenly you're runner up in the group, and are drawn away against India. You've suddenly doubled your travel & accomodation costs for the campaign, even before you qualify. Youth teams don't have those kinds of dollars.
Yeah trvel thing for playoffs is fair enough. Where do they get the extra team from this years groups from then? Australia is Group H (8) so there are 7 other groups of 6 needing to produce 15 spots. That really doesn't go???
Joeys thump out-classed Laos 12 October 2009 | 23:44 - FFA The win moves the Australians four points clear at the top of the table with the top team in Group H qualifying for the AFC U-16 Championship 2010. Indeed if Laos defeat Malaysia in their next match on Wednesday, the Joeys will qualify no matter what the result of their final match against Malaysia is on Friday afternoon. Giancarlo Gallifuoco (29th), Jesse Makarounas (45th), Hayden Morton (70th) and Connor Chapman (76th) all scored to put Australia out of reach before second-half substitute Stevan Ilic snared a double (80th & 90th). Joeys Head Coach Jean-Paul de Marigny was very pleased with the effort from his squad following the disappointing draw with Malaysia on the weekend. “The most pleasing thing is that the players are improving and adapting to the style of football we want them to play every game they play,” De Marigny said following the match. “The movement was better off the ball, there was good interchange in the midfield, they were patient and they waited for the right moment.” “It’s a long process and it doesn’t happen over the night, they’re young boys so if we can see that we’re taking steps forward and making improvement all the time it’s very rewarding for them and the coaching staff so we’re happy,” concluded de Marigny. Qantas Joeys line-up: 1. Lachlan Tibbles, 2. Samuel Chapple, 4. Connor Chapman, 5. Hayden Morton, 6. Milos Degenek (c), 7. Jake Monaco, 9. Jesse Makarounas (23. Stevan Ilic 73’), 11. Brodie Paterson, 14. Alex Cerruto (37. Luke Remington 79’), 15. Giancarlo Gallifuoco (10. Joshua Da Silva 60’), 16. Jakob Williams.
This particular Joeys team is an interesting group. Apparently they are the first youth national team in Aus to be selected based on new criterias set by Han Berger - basically skill over size . So how well they do in the future would be a good gauge on the effectiveness of the Dutch revolution. Unfortunately since youth tournaments are traditionally dominated by teams with the biggest kids, it's also expected that we'd achieve a lot less success at youth level .
Aust have made it through to the U/17's Asian Cup Finals with a game to spare after Laos and Malaysia drew 4-4 this afternoon. That puts Aust on 7 points, Laos on 4 points and Malaysia on 2 points with Aust only having to play Malaysia in their final game. http://www.the-afc.com/en/afc-u16-championship-2010-schedule-results
Australia Under-16 Squad: Nicholas ANSELL (Melbourne Victory), Kwabena BOAHENE (AIS), Corey BROWN (AIS), Samuel CHAPPLE (NSWIS), Connor CHAPMAN (AIS), Milos DEGENEK (AIS), Giancarlo GALLIFUOCO (AIS), Benjamin GARUCCIO (SASI), Paul IZZO (AIS), Jesse MAKAROUNAS (AIS), Jacob MELLING (SASI), Jake MONACO (AIS), Hayden MORTON (NSWIS), Brodie PATERSON (AIS), Yianni PERKATIS (AIS), Anthony PROIA (AIS), Luke REMINGTON (NNSWIS), Daniel SADAKA (SUTHERLAND SHARKS), Lachlan TIBBLES (AIS), Abe WHEELHOUSE (NNSWIS), Jakob WILLIAMS (ACTAS), Riley WOODCOCK (WAIS), Kwame YEBOAH (QAS) http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/news/1027411/Joeys-squad-announced
We played our first game in the AFC U-16 championship in Tashkent, Uzbekistan yesterday and beat Timor Leste 5-0. Next game is against Vietnam, who Japan just beat 6-0. A win in this game (and a win for Japan against Timor Leste) would have us through to the Knockout Stage.
Yeah I watched the game against East Timor. I really like this group of players. Technically they are as good, if not, better than the Young Socceroos...but like the U-20's....they have some really poor defenders. I think this team has a lot of goals in it, but a lot of goals will be conceded as well especially against better teams.
Timor Leste looked quite tidy for a tiny nation that has only existed for 10 or so years as well. Good defense comes with maturity and IMO these defenders were better than the 19s - especially transitioning from defence to attack.
A day late but Aust def Vietnam 3-1 to progress to the next stage. We still have a Group game against Japan, but that only determines who gets first or second. A win or draw will have Aust finishing 1st.
3-2 e/t win against UAE in the Quarters puts Aust into the 2011 U/17 World Cup in Mexico next year. Next game is against Hosts Uzbekistan. We'll be doing well to get a result there.