Qantas Young Socceroos qualify for 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup

A hat-trick from Corey Gameiro has helped the Qantas Young Socceroos to a 3-0 victory over Jordan in the quarter-finals of the AFC U-19 Championship and in the process qualify for next year’s FIFA U-20 World Cup in Turkey.

A hat-trick from Corey Gameiro has helped the Qantas Young Socceroos to a 3-0 victory over Jordan in the quarter-finals of the AFC U-19 Championship and in the process qualify for next year-s FIFA U-20 World Cup in Turkey.

The Qantas Young Socceroos got off to the perfect start with a goal in the 10th minute after Adam Taggart was fouled in the box by Monther Raja. Corey Gameiro stepped up to take the resulting penalty and placed his shot low and hard into the bottom right corner of the goal, past the Jordanian goal keeper Noureddin Bani Ateyah who had guessed the right way.

Midway through the first half Jordan had a great chance to equalise when Belal Qwaider found space inside the box, but Qantas Young Socceroos goal keeper Paul Izzo closed him down well and blocked the shot with his legs.

Jordan continued to try their luck from range, shooting from outside the box, but none on target to trouble Izzo.

Qantas Young Socceroos captain Curtis Good had a great chance to extend his team-s lead in the 40th minute when he found himself unmarked at the far post on the end Terry Antonis corner but his header went marginally wide of the goal.

Two minutes later Gameiro chanced his luck with a very long range shot from about 35 yards out that just went over the cross-bar.

The second half saw the Qantas Young Socceroos continue to apply the pressure with their possession based game.

Adam Taggart seemed to have doubled the Qantas Young Socceroos lead in the 52nd minute when he broke free from his defender and tapped in from inside the box, but the referee and his assistant adjudged him to be offside and denied the goal.

Taggart had another chance a minute later when he had a header from inside the box, but Bani Ateyah was well positioned to make an easy save.

The Qantas Young Socceroos did finally double their lead in the 55th minute when a cross from Terry Antonis on the right found Corey Gameiro on the left who dribbled into the box and expertly placed his shot inside the far post.

The next thirty minutes were a tense affair with Jordan counter attacking at every opportunity putting plenty of pressure on the Qantas Young Socceroos defence. To their credit the Qantas Young Socceroos maintained their discipline and composure and didn-t allow the Jordanians back into the match with any real goal scoring chances.

In the 76th minute, Qantas Young Socceroos Head Coach Paul Okon brought on Ben Garuccio for Adam Taggart and four minutes later swapped Reece Caira for Mustafa Amini.

Garuccio-s and Amini-s fresh legs helped re-vitalise the Qantas Young Socceroos for the remainder of the match and it paid dividends in the 83rd minute when Amini played a perfect through ball to Gameiro who again went one-on-one with Bani Ateyah and found the back of the net to complete his hat-trick.

Speaking after the match, Okon was ecstatic with the result and his team-s performance throughout the tournament.

“It is an incredible feeling to qualify for the FIFA U-20 World Cup,” said Okon

“As a group we have only been together for 30 days as 10 of the players are based in Europe and the UK and the remaining 13 are based in Australia. The training camp in Portugal in October was the first time we had been together as a group. From the first minute we got together in Portugal the players believed in their ability and the philosophy of the team and how we wanted to play.

“Not only have we qualified for Turkey but we have also shown by our football that we have played that Australia is a very good footballing nation.

“The match this evening was not easy, we always respect our opponents and this evening was no different where we had some difficult times against a good team like Jordan.

“We will enjoy the victory and world cup qualification and then tomorrow we will focus on the semi final where we will face a very tough opponent in Iraq and we will be doing everything possible to go on and try and win the tournament,” concluded Okon.

In the other quarter-final matches Uzbekistan defeated Syria 3-0 on penalties after the scores were locked at 2-2 after extra time, the Korea Republic easily dispatched IR Iran 4-1 and Iraq narrowly defeated Japan 2-1. .

The Qantas Young Socceroos will now meet Iraq in the semi-finals of the AFC U-19 Championship on Tuesday evening at the Emirates Stadium, Ras al-Khaimah (Kick-Off 8:00pm local, 3:00am AEDT) with the winner advancing to the final which will be played on Saturday 17 November (Kick-off 4:45pm local, 11:45pm AEDT)

Match Details Qantas Young Socceroos 3 (Corey Gameiro 10-(pen)/55-/83-) Jordan 0 Sunday 11 November 2012 Fujairah Stadium, Al Fujairah City, United Arab Emirates Referee: Faghani ALIREZA (I.R. IRAN) Assistant Referees: Abolfazli MOHAMMADREZA (I.R. IRAN) & Ramzan Saeed M A AL-NAEMI (QATAR) Fourth Official: Banjar Mohammed AL-DOSARI (QATAR) Crowd: 2,500

Qantas Young Socceroos line-up: 1.Paul IZZO (gk), 2. Joshua BRILLANTE 3.Connor CHAPMAN, 4.Curtis GOOD (c), 6.Reece CAIRA (20.MuSTAFA AMINI 80-), 7.Corey GAMEIRO, 8.Terry ANTONIS, 9. Adam TAGGART (19.Benjamin GARUCCIO 76-), 14.Ryan WILLIAMS (23.Travis COOPER 85-) 15.Jason GERIA, 16.Jackson IRVINE.

Substitutes Not Used: 10.Jamie MACLAREN, 11.Ryan EDWARDS, 12.Liam JACOB (gk) 13.Tom KING, 17.Hayden MORTON 18.Jack DUNCAN (gk), 21.Mitchell OXBORROW, 22.David VRANKOVIC Not Eligible: 5.Corey BROWN

Yellow Cards: Corey Gameiro 51-, Adam Taggart 52-, Reece Caira 54-, Ben Garrucio 82-.

Jordan line-up: 1.Noureddin Zaid Khaleel Bani ATEYAH (gk), 3.Mohannad Khair Alla ALSOULIMAN, 4.Amer Omar Mohammad ABUHUDIEAB, 6.Asem Sharaf Mahmoud ALQUDAH, 7.F.AWAD, 8.Laith Subhi Drzi ALBASHTAWI (20.K AL ABED 80-), 10.Moath Mahmoud Mohammad MOSLEH (9.Ahmad Mousa Ahmad ALESSAWI 58-), 14.Munther Yousef Raja HASAN (13.Saleh Ibrahim Ratib SALEH 54-), 17.Rajaei Ayed Fadel HASAN (C), 18.Omar Khalil Ismail AL HASANI, 23.Belal Ali Hussein Qwaider

Substitutes Not Used: 2.Y RAED, 5.Yazan Suhil Mahmoud TANNOUS, 11.Mohammad Sameer Yousef ALAMLEH, 12.Yazeed Moien Hasan ABULAILA (gk), 15.Ali Yaser Ali AL RTHOOM, 16.Sameer Maher Raja SULEIMAN, 19.Ahmad Nawaf Abdel Aziz ISRAIWAH, 21.Feras Zeyad Yousef SHILBAYA, 22.Mohammad Zeyad Mahmoud ABUNABHAN (gk)

Yellow Cards: Belal Ali Hussein Qwaider 63-, K AL ABED 84-