Adelaide United FC will have four players at next week’s Potential Qantas Socceroos & Qantas Australian U23s Training Camp in Sydney.
Adelaide United FC will have four players at next week-s Potential Qantas Socceroos & Qantas Australian U23s Training Camp in Sydney.
Previously capped Qantas Socceroos goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic will be joined by midfielder Zenon Caravella and defensive duo Milan Susak and Antony Golec as the Reds- contingent for the October 24-25 training camp organised by Qantas Socceroos Head Coach Holger Osieck and Qantas Australian U23s Head Coach Aurelio Vidmar.
The Adelaide United quartet is part of a 31-player squad selected for the camp, which is intended to give Osieck and Vidmar a firsthand look at players who have the potential to play for the Qantas Socceroos and Qantas Australian U23s in the future.
In a similar vein to the training camp that was held in Germany earlier this year, Osieck is excited about the prospect of working with Australian-based players who may be in line for future selection as part of the Qantas Socceroos.
“The main aim of this camp is to have a closer look at the players that we have been monitoring from within the Hyundai A-League,” said Osieck.
“It is important for us to have a personal look at these players to see if they are potential candidates to join the Qantas Socceroos for our qualification campaign.
“With such a long campaign, we are always looking for more depth to our squad and it-s logical to see if these players from the Hyundai A-League can provide that depth.
“We held a similar camp in Duisburg earlier this year which was very beneficial and we will be looking to have similar camps in the future,” concluded Osieck.
While Galekovic is no stranger to national selection having been part of the Qantas Socceroos- 2010 World Cup campaign among other national squads in the past and 21 year old Golec has represented Australia at U-23 and U-20 level, for Susak and Caravella it will their first time in the national setup.
“I was invited to a Young Socceroos camp years ago, but it didn-t end up going ahead so it-s a big honour to be selected, even for a training camp,” Caravella said.
“To be considered is a huge thing when it-s for your country, so it-s a big honour and I-m very happy.”
Caravella says he will head to the camp without any expectations and just hopes he can continue to let his football do the talking. But before then, his concentration is on helping the Reds make it back-to-back wins when they face Sydney FC at Hindmarsh on Saturday.
“I-m not putting any expectations myself, I just look forward to going there and showing what I can do,” Caravella said.
“But first we-ve got a really important game on Saturday, there is a great feeling in the side at the moment and we want to continue on from the standards we set against Melbourne.”
With the next AFC Asian Qualifiers for the 2012 London Olympic Games against Iraq and Uzbekistan in late November, Vidmar will also be using this opportunity to assess potential additions to his squad.
“We have added a number of players in this camp who are eligible for the Olympic qualifiers that have not been involved in our campaign so far,” said Vidmar.
“This camp is a good opportunity for us to work with those players to see if they can offer anything different to the current group of players.”
The Qantas Australian U23s will travel to Qatar next month to face Iraq in the third round of the 2012 London Olympic Games Asian Qualifiers on the 23rd November. They will then travel back to Australia to face Uzbekistan four days later at Parramatta Stadium.
Potential Qantas Socceroos & Qantas Australian U23s -Training Camp Squad List – Sydney Training Camp – 24 & 25 October 2011
Terry ANTONIS (Sydney FC), Aziz BEHICH (Melbourne Heart), Luke BRATTAN (Brisbane Roar), Zenon CARAVELLA (Adelaide United), Ivan FRANJIC (Brisbane Roar), Sam GALLAGHER (Central Coast Mariners), Eugene GALEKOVIC (gk) (Adelaide United), Antony GOLEC (Adelaide United), Rostyn GRIFFITHS (Central Coast Mariners), Ryan GRIFFITHS (Newcastle Jets), Ben HALLORAN (Gold Coast United), Brendan HAMILL (Melbourne Heart), Jason HOFFMAN (Melbourne Heart), James JEGGO (Melbourne Victory), Ben KANTAROVSKI (Newcastle Jets), Adrian LEIJER (Melbourne Victory), Bradley McDONALD (Central Coast Mariners), Tahj MINNIECON (Gold Coast United), Mitchell NICHOLS (Brisbane Roar), Erik PAARTALU (Brisbane Roar), Dimitri PETRATOS (Sydney FC), Joshua RISDON (Perth Glory), Joshua ROSE (Central Coast Mariners), Mathew RYAN (gk) (Central Coast Mariners), Milan SUSAK (Adelaide United), Matthew SMITH (Brisbane Roar), Adam TAGGART (Perth Glory), Michael THEOKLITOS (gk)(Brisbane Roar), Archie THOMPSON (Melbourne Victory), Michael THWAITE (Gold Coast United), David WILLIAMS (Melbourne Heart)
Note: To be eligible for the upcoming 2012 London Olympic Games players must be born on or after 1/1/1989
