Qantas Young Socceroos Head Coach Paul Okon has selected Brisbane Roar’s Corey Brown and Jason Geria in a 23-player squad for the upcoming two international friendly matches against the Portugal U-20 Men’s National team in Lisbon on the 11 & 14 October 2012.
Qantas Young Socceroos Head Coach Paul Okon has selected Brisbane Roar-s Corey Brown and Jason Geria in a 23-player squad for the upcoming two international friendly matches against the Portugal U-20 Men-s National team in Lisbon on the 11 & 14 October 2012.
Okon will be using these matches as another important part of his squad-s preparations for the upcoming AFC U-19 Championship which will be held in the United Arab Emirates from 1-17 November 2012.
“I-m really excited about the trip actually,” Brown said.
“I-ve never been anywhere like Portugal so it should be a really good experience.
“To play a team with such a high calibre like Portugal – they-ve already qualified for the U-20 World Cup next year – will show us where we are at and it will be a good test.
“In November, we-re going to UAE for the U-19 Championships, which are our Asian Cup qualifiers which means then is when it will count so this will be good preparation.”
Brown, one of Brisbane-s full-time youth players, was looking forward to using the trip as another means to continue his ever-growing football development, especially with close friend Geria.
“I-m pretty happy with where my football is at right now,” he said.
“I-m really developing under Rado [Vidosic] and the older boys are really helping me along.
“I-m pretty comfortable with all the boys in the Young Socceroos but it-s great to have Jason in there as well and we-re both looking forward to the two matches.”
Australia will play the Portugal U-20 national team on Thursday, 11 October in Mafra and then again on Sunday, 14 October in Lisbon.
Brown and Geria will be away for approximately 10 days but are expected to be back in time for the club-s first National Youth League fixture, away to Perth Glory on Saturday, 20 October.
Qantas Young Socceroos squad: Mustafa AMINI (Borussia Dortmund, Germany), Terry ANTONIS (Sydney FC), Alex BAIRD (gk) (Dundee FC, Scotland), Joshua BRILLANTE (Newcastle Jets), Corey BROWN (Brisbane Roar), Reece CAIRA (Western Sydney Wanderers), Connor CHAPMAN (Newcastle Jets), Travis COOPER (VVV Venlo, Netherlands), Ryan EDWARDS (Reading FC, England), Corey GAMEIRO (FC Eindhoven, Netherlands), Ben GARUCCIO (Melbourne Heart), Jason GERIA (Brisbane Roar), Jackson IRVINE(Celtic FC, Scotland), Paul IZZO (gk) (Adelaide United), Liam JACOB (gk) (Oldham Athletic FC, England), Tom KING (Bristol City FC, England), Jamie MACLAREN (Blackburn Rovers, England), Hayden MORTON (Central Coast Mariners), Luke O-DEA (Bentleigh Greens, Victorian Premier League), Mitchell OXBORROW (Newcastle Jets), Daniel PETKOVSKI (Sydney FC), Adam TAGGART (Newcastle Jets), Ryan WILLIAMS (Fulham FC, England)
