Midfielder Aaron Mooy has become the first NRMA Insurance Western Sydney Wanderers FC player to make the national squad.
Midfielder Aaron Mooy has become the first NRMA Insurance Western Sydney Wanderers FC player to make the national squad.
The Blacktown junior made the final 20-man Qantas Socceroos squad announced today for the East Asian Cup 2013 qualifying tournament next week.
Head coach Tony Popovic said he and the players were proud of Mooy-s achievement.
“We are all extremely proud of Aaron and what has done,” Popovic said.
“He has worked hard and has come a long way with us in a short time and he should be congratulated for that.
“Of course he is still developing and has more work to do but this is a time to reflect on the great honour of making a Socceroos squad.”
Executive Chairman Lyall Gorman said the announcement was a wonderful achievement for Mooy and a fantastic milestone for the club.
“To have one of our young players such as Aaron earn a spot in a touring national squad is a great achievement and something that I know he has been striving for,” Gorman said.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for the young man to experience an elite player environment and look at the sport through a different lens.
“There is no doubt that this news will help feed the optimism around our playing group and the supporters who have already seen the club achieve so much in a short space of time.
“This is a very significant milestone for the Western Sydney Wanderers FC and there will be more to come.”
Qantas Socceroos Head Coach Holger Osieck today named his final squad of 20-players from the original provisional Qantas Socceroos squad named last week, Dario Vidosic, Rostyn Griffiths and Luke Wilkshire were ruled out of final selection due to injury and Ben Halloran & Osama Malik were not selected in the final squad.
Along with Mooy, Terry Antonis, Dino Djulbic, Ivan Franjic Michael Marrone, Mat Ryan, Matt Smith and Adam Taggart are all in line to make their senior international debuts.
The team 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.
