The Beach Socceroos Head Coach and Football Federation SA Technical Director Airton Andrioli has announced a 10-player squad, including Michele Lastella, Michael Matricciani, Daniel Atkins and Ricardo Da Silva from South Australia for the Asian Beach Soccer Cup. The squad will compete in Haiyang, China from 11-14 July 2013.

 

Andrioli is looking forward to taking the Beach Socceroos to another international tournament after playing in the 2013 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Asian Qualifiers in Doha in January.

 

“The last moment confirmation of our participation at the Asian Beach Soccer Cup has not allowed us much time and our preparation will be minimal,” said Andrioli.

 

“The discipline of the players and the organisation of the team was extremely important in our World Cup Qualifying Tournament in Doha. 

 

“This is something I am confident we can work on, even in the short time available and we will focus on this over the next few days. 

 

“We had some last moment problems with injuries (Josh Da Palma (GK) and David Zdrilic) and also a number of players were unavailable for selection (Pany Nikas, Nick Tsattalios and Ante Juric). 

 

“As a result, we will lose quite a bit of experience with the absence of these players. 

 

“But this tournament will give us the opportunity to acquire more experience and reassess the squad for the future.

 

“We have four new players in the squad (Ricardo Da Silva, Joel Snellenburg, Daniel Atkins and Thomas Hamilton (GK)) and we will assess these players and see if they can adapt to beach soccer and have the potential to become regulars in the squad for the future.

 

“We don’t know too much about our first opponent, Vietnam, and this will be a critical game for us. We obviously need the result but will also use this game to gain some match fitness and work on our shape and structure. 

 

“I am confident we can get a result and the opportunity to play the UAE in the next game is without doubt an extra motivation for us.

 

“This is again a great opportunity to represent Australia and do our country proud,” concluded Andrioli.

 

The Beach Socceroos have been drawn in Group B alongside the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Vietnam and will play their opening match of the Asian Beach Soccer Cup on Thursday 11 July (Kick-off 7:30pm local, 9:30pm AEST) and their next match against the UAE on Saturday 13 July (Kick-off 4:00pm local, 6:00pm AEST).

 

The Beach Socceroos need to finish at the top of the group to face the winner of Group A in the Final on Sunday 14 July (Kick-off 5:15pm local, 7:15pm AEST)

 

Beach Socceroos Squad - Asian Beach Soccer Cup

 

Simon Jaeger

George Souris

Peter Crevani

Daniel Atkins (South Australia)

Michele Lastella (South Australia)

Jim Bakis

Joel Snellenburg

Michael Matricciani (South Australia)

Ricardo Da Silva (South Australia)

Thomas Hamilton

 

Head Coach: Airton Andrioli

Physiotherapist: Michael Pasqualin

Team Manager: Vito Basile