Elasi Earns Selection For Young Socceroos

By: Marcus | July 17th, 2009

Melbourne young gun Nathan Elasi has been selected in a 20 man squad who will play in the Copa Ciudad de Rosario in Argentina as preparation for the Under-20 World Cup in Egypt. The Copa will pit the Young Socceroos against fellow FIFA Under-20 World Cup finalists Uruguay and the USA, as well as Argentinean youth team Tiro Federal. Everyone will be out to impress as spots in the U-20 World Cup squad are up for grabs.

The U-20 World Cup will be staged between September 24th and the 16th of October. Australia have drawn Brazil, Costa Rica and Czech Republic in there group. I wish Elasi all the best, and I hope he is selected in the Australian squad as it will provide valuable experience.

In other news, Luke Pilkington was announced the winner of reality TV show Football Stars of Tomorrow, thus winning a one year contract with the Victory.
“Luke Pilkington is a very respectful, mature and enthusiastic footballer and person,” Melbourne coach Ernie Merrick was quoted as saying.
“He brings many strengths to his football, he is technically very good, physically he has speed but also endurance and he is tactically knowledgeable.
“Luke is a left footer, which is hard to find, and he can play in range of positions including left back and left midfield.
“He has a very bright future.”
I didn’t watch the show as I don’t have Foxtel, but from what I understand he’s a good player, but the main reason he was selected was the fact he’s a left sided player, which is the big flaw in the Melbourne defence, as we have no one who fluidly plays there. It will be very interesting to see how this pans out!

Also new boy Surat Sukha has been the given the extremely difficult job of controlling Liverpool God Steven Gerrard ahead of Thailand’s clash with Liverpool on the 22nd of July. Sukha will be out to give it all he’s got and impress for the first game of the season, good luck Sukha.