After a recent tour to South America, the Subway Young Socceroos are now focussing on the upcoming ASEAN U19 Boys Championship in July.
They took on Uruguay and Chile on the tour and impressed across the matches against top quality opponents.
Head Coach Trevor Morgan said the tour to South America, and the one prior to Europe, has given the squad plenty of opportunities for growth.
“It was a really good learning experience for the players in South America, they were given the opportunity to play against strong opponents and did well,” Morgan said.
“We had some new players I wanted to see in action, and amongst the international camp environment, and they all impressed, it was good to see.”
There isn’t long before the team are back in action too, as they now gear up for the ASEAN U19 Boys Championship in July.
The Aussies will face Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam in Group B and Morgan said they are going into the tournament with confidence, but realism.
“There’s some must win games coming up so the boys will have to apply what they’ve learned on the pitch and in camps once again,” he said.
“Everyone wants to win a tournament and we will certainly be going into this one with that mindset, but we also have an element of realism as well, we know it is going to be tough.”
The ASEAN Championship is just the start of a busy period of competitive football for the Young Socceroos.
Between September 21 and 29, they will play their AFC U20 Asian Cup 2025™ Qualifiers in a preliminary stage that features 45 teams.
They have been placed in Group D and will face Afghanistan, Macau, Palestine and the host nation Saudi Arabia.
Morgan said these qualifiers are not just important for the Asian Cup, but it also marks the first step on the road to the FIFA U20 World Cup™ next year.
“This will be the beginning of World Cup qualifying and if you do well in qualifying, then in the Asian Cup, you could end up on the world stage next year,” he said.
“It will be massive for the boys, some of the life experiences will be incredible over the next 12 months or so and I am excited for the group.”
As a group, that is the ultimate goal – to qualify for the FIFA U20 World Cup 2025™, and Morgan wants the squad to believe in their ability to get there.
“I want the group to believe they’re good enough, because us as coaches believe in them, we believe they can make it to a World Cup,” he said.
“It’s now over to them to back themselves through the Asian Cup qualifiers, and then the Asian Cup itself, it’s an exciting time really.”
Above all the winning though, Morgan stressed the importance of player growth and developing potential future Socceroos.
“Of course, we want to win every game this U20 squad play, but perhaps more importantly we want this group of players to continue to develop as footballers,” he said.
“I can see these players growing into future Socceroos, and that is so exciting, so whilst we go into every game with the intention of winning, there is a larger and longer term goal here of growing these young men both on an off the pitch.”