Local Lad in Young Socceroos to face Portugal U20s
Young Socceroos coach Paul Okon has included 10 overseas-based players in his squad for next week's friendly matches against the Portugal under 20s side.
The 23-man squad named on Wednesday for the October 11 and 14 matches in Lisbon featured players from England, Germany, the Netherlands and Scotland, with the remaining 13 from Australian clubs.
Warragul born and current Melbourne Victory player Luke O’Dea is included in the squad. Luke has represented the Young Socceroos in previous trips to Japan, Vietnam and recently in Indonesia where he returned as the leading goal scorer for the tournament.
Okon will use the matches as part of his squad's preparations for the upcoming Asian Under 19s championship in the United Arab Emirates from November 1-17.
"As this camp is held during FIFA match dates, this will be the first time that the overseas-based players will join the core of our squad in the lead-up to the AFC U-19 Championship," Okon said.
"Even though there are some Australian-based players not selected in this particular squad they are certainly not out of contention for final selection.
"... We will also be looking to maximise our training time together and the games against Portugal will give us a good indication of how well the overseas-based players can gel in a short period of time."
Young Socceroos: 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, England), Corey Gameiro (FC Eindhoven, Netherlands), Ben Garuccio (Melbourne Heart), Jason Geria (Brisbane Roar), Jackson Irvine (Celtic, 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 (Melbourne Victory), Mitchell Oxborrow (Newcastle Jets), Daniel Petkovski (Sydney FC), Adam Taggart (Newcastle Jets), Ryan Williams(Fulham, England).
Luke is pictured with the team wearing the number 16.
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