Qantas Socceroos Head Coach Holger Osieck has named his final squad for the EAFF East Asian Cup 2013 qualifying tournament, with mixed fortunes for the Reds.
Qantas Socceroos Head Coach Holger Osieck has named his final squad for the East Asian Football Federation (EAFF) East Asian Cup 2013 qualifying tournament, with mixed fortunes for the Reds’ representatives.
From the original provisional Qantas Socceroos squad named last week, Malik joins Reds team mate Dario Vidosic as players not making the trip to Hong Kong. Malik and Brisbane Roar-s Ben Halloran were not selected in the final squad of 20-players, while Vidosic, Rostyn Griffiths and Luke Wilkshire were ruled out of final selection due to injury.
Malik and Vidosic-s absence means the pair will both be available for selection in the Reds- squad for Saturday-s top of the table match against the Central Coast Mariners, while leaving Eugene Galekovic as the solitary Adelaide United player in the Socceroos squad.
Galekovic-s selection means he will miss the game against the Mariners as well as next Friday night-s home clash with Melbourne Victory.
While obviously disappointed not to have made the final squad, Malik was grateful for the experience and to have been considered for Australia-s national team and the way Malik is going, if he can continue his current form during the season then, there is a fair chance it will not be the last time the 22 year old is called up into the national squad.
The Qantas Socceroos will depart for Hong Kong tomorrow morning (Friday 30 November) and will play their first match of the tournament against Hong Kong on Monday 3 December (kick-off 8:50pm AEDT), followed by DPR Korea on Wednesday 5 December (kick-off 11:30pm AEDT), then Guam on Friday 7 December (kick-off 8:50pm AEDT) with their final match of the tournament against Chinese Taipei on Sunday 9 December (kick-off 8:00pm AEDT).
The teams that will participate in the EAFF East Asian Cup for men are Japan, Korea Republic & China PR with a fourth team determined by a qualification process.
The qualifiers for the men-s edition of the EAFF East Asian Cup 2013 will be played in Hong Kong from 1-9 December 2012 and will involve teams from Australia, Chinese-Taipei, Guam, Hong Kong & DPR Korea. The EAFF East Asian Cup 2013 will be held in Seoul, Korea Republic from 20-28 July 2013.
