Three Canberra youngsters have been selected in Gary Van Egmond’s Young Matildas squad, headed to Lebanon for the first round of qualifying for the AFC Women’s U/19 Championship.
Karly Roestbakken, Aoife Colvill and Sarah Morgan, all products of the Canberra United Academy will travel to Lebanon later this week in preparation for the tournament that will run from the 24th-28th October.
Roestbakken and Morgan both began their football at local clubs before being identified as talented players to move into the Academy structure, while Colvill’s family packed up everything to move down to Canberra before she joined in with the Academy and flourished in the high-performance environment.
Colvill excelled in the NPLW Capital Football this season, finishing with 42 goals to claim the Golden Boot, while Roestbakken and Morgan were key members of the side that lost narrowly in the Preliminary Final to Canberra FC and fell by a goal to treble-winners Belconnen United in the Federation Cup Final.
Australia will need to top their group, or finish as one of the two best runners-up in the first stage of qualifying, to advance to the second round of the qualification process which will be held in April next year.
Should the Westfield Young Matildas successfully navigate the two qualification tournaments, they will advance to next year’s AFC U19 Women’s Championship in Thailand where a place at the 2020 FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup will be on the line.
Capital Football Technical Director Scott O’Donell congratulated the trio and took the opportunity to reiterate the benefits of the high-performance Academy.
“I would like to extend my congratulations to Karly, Aoife and Sarah for their selection in the squad and I wish them the best of luck over in Lebanon,” he said.
“All of these girls have put an incredible amount of time and effort into their football and they have been rewarded with selection in the national team.”
“The Canberra United Academy continues to benefit footballers in the ACT and surrounding region, and clearly offers a pathway for talented footballers to reach their potential and play at the highest level.”
The Westfield Young Matildas will depart Australia on Friday, 19 October 2018 and play their first qualification match against Mongolia on Wednesday, 24 October 2018.
Australia will meet hosts Lebanon two days later, before rounding out the first phase of qualifying with a match against Hong Kong on Sunday, 28 October 2018.
All the Westfield Young Matildas matches this month will be played at the Jounieh Municipal Stadium in Beirut.