Young Socceroos win Australia’s first Asian silverware

Australia have defeated the Korea Republic in a dramatic penalty shoot-out to win the ASEAN Football Federation U19 Championships in Thailand on Saturday.

Goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne was the hero for the Young Socceroos, making a number of fantastic saves during regulation time and three important saves during the penalty shoot-out.

Torrential rain started after half time and continued for the remainder of the match, severely restricting the number of scoring opportunities for either side. 

With the score locked at 0-0 and due to the extreme weather conditions, both teams and the tournament organisers agreed to determine the result by a penalty shoot-out without going to extra-time.

Young Socceroos Head Coach Jan Versleijen was very happy with his team’s overall performance as he looks towards the next important tournament. “Every game we improved, the players had a better understanding of the combinations creating chances. It was pleasing to win the tournament. 

“Now we have to prepare for the qualifiers and I can see improvement that will give us confidence leading into the qualifiers,” concluded Versleijen.

The Young Socceroos will focus their attention to the AFC U19 Youth Championships which will be held in Saudi Arabia from the October 31 to November 14, 2008. The top four nations from the AFC U19 Youth Championships will qualify for the FIFA U20 World Cup which will be held in Egypt from July 10-31, 2009.

Published on October 13, 2008