Brisbane Roar will supply its full quota of three Qantas Olyroos representatives following the squad selection announced by head coach Aurelio Vidmar today.
Brisbane Roar will supply its full quota of three Qantas Olyroos representatives following the squad selection announced by head coach Aurelio Vidmar today.
Midfielders Mitch Nichols and Rocky Visconte will be joined by defender Matt Jurman as part of the 20-man squad to face Uzbeckistan in Tashkent and the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi in the third round of Olympic qualifiers.
Football Federation Australia recently implemented a three player per club ruling on Qantas Olyroos selection to alleviate the strain on club-s heading into the business end of the Hyundai A-League season.
Visconte will make his first appearance for the Qantas Olyroos in this stage of qualifying after recovering from a hamstring injury that has kept him out of squad for the last three matches.
The majority of the squad will depart Australia on January 29 for a pre-match camp in the UAE before heading to Tashkent to face Uzbekistan at the JAR Stadium on Sunday, February 5.
The squad will then return to the UAE for a training camp to prepare for their next qualification match
against the UAE at the Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, February 22.
The training camp will also include a friendly match against the Philippines senior national team at the Zabeel Stadium, Dubai on Thursday, February 16.
The teams in each group of the third round of qualifying play in a home-and-away format from 21 September 2011, to 14 March 14, 2012, with the winner of each group directly qualifying for the London 2012 Olympic Games Football competition.
The three second-placed teams from the third round will clash in a playoff at a centralised venue from March 25 to 29, 2012, and the winners of this group will meet the representatives of CAF (Africa) for a berth in the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Qantas Australian U-23s Squad List
AFC Asian Qualifiers for the 2012 London Games – Round 3
V Uzbekistan and UAE – February 2012
Squad: Terry ANTONIS (Sydney FC), Aziz BEHICH (Melbourne Heart), Mark BIRIGHITTI (gk – Adelaide United), Oliver BOZANIC (Central Coast Mariners), Kerem BULUT FK (Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic), Isaka CERNAK (Melbourne Victory), Mate DUGANDZIC (Melbourne Heart), Diogo FERREIRA (Melbourne Victory), Matthew FOSCHINI (Melbourne Victory), Antony GOLEC (Adelaide United), Jason HOFFMAN (Melbourne Heart), Matthew JURMAN (Brisbane Roar), Ben KANTAROVSKI (Newcastle Jets), Daniel MULLEN (Adelaide United), Mitch NICHOLS (Brisbane Roar), Dimitrios PETRATOS (Sydney FC), Sebastian RYALL (Sydney FC), Mathew RYAN (gk – Central Coast Mariners), Adam TAGGART (Perth Glory), Rocky VISCONTE (Brisbane Roar). Stand by players: Mustafa AMINI (Central Coast Mariners), Bernie IBINI (Central Coast Mariners).
