Biggest tournament for national teams at this age. Needs its own thread.

Australia won a warm up game yesterday with Mauk and Cowburn scoring. 

From the report, starting team appeared to be 
Izzo
Garuccio
Juric
Susnjar
Buhagiar 
Mauk 
Hrustic 

No info on who else started so fill in the gaps players subbed on were:

Aspro Tongyik Nizic Baccus Wilson Kamau De Silva Blackwood Sotirio. 

2018 AFC U23 Championship – Group D:

Australia U23 v Syria U23
Thursday 11 January 2018
Kunshan Stadium, Kunshan
Kick-off: 4pm (local); 7pm (AEDT)
Broadcast: Second half LIVE and EXCLUSIVE on FOX SPORTS 501 following ‘Just For Kicks’

Vietnam U23 v Australia U23
Sunday 14 January 2018
Kunshan Stadium, Kunshan
Kick-off: 4pm (local); 7pm (AEDT)
Broadcast: Full match LIVE and EXCLUSIVE on FOX SPORTS 506

Korea Republic U23 v Australia U23
Wednesday 17 January 2018
Kunshan Stadium, Kunshan
Kick-off: 7.30pm (local); 10.30pm (AEDT)
Broadcast: Full match LIVE and EXCLUSIVE on FOX SPORTS 501

Did Brandon O'Neill just miss out due to age? The squad is quite exciting. 

Name	Club, Country
Jonathan ASPROPOTAMITIS	Western Sydney Wanderers FC, AUSTRALIA
Keanu BACCUS	Western Sydney Wanderers FC, AUSTRALIA
George BLACKWOOD	Adelaide United, AUSTRALIA
Trent BUHAGIAR	Central Coast Mariners, AUSTRALIA
Nicholas COWBURN	Newcastle Jets, AUSTRALIA
Daniel DE SILVA	Central Coast Mariners, AUSTRALIA
Thomas DENG	Melbourne Victory, AUSTRALIA
Benjamin GARUCCIO	Adelaide United, AUSTRALIA
Alex GERSBACH	Rosenborg BK, NORWAY
Thomas GLOVER (Gk)	Central Coast Mariners, AUSTRALIA
Ajdin HRUSTIC	Groningen FC, NETHERLANDS
Paul IZZO (Gk)	Adelaide United, AUSTRALIA
Deni JURIC	HNK Hajduk Split, CROATIA
Bruce KAMAU	Melbourne City FC, AUSTRALIA
Stefan MAUK	Melbourne City FC, AUSTRALIA
Riley MCGREE	Club Brugge, BELGIUM
Daniel NIZIC (Gk)	Morecambe FC, ENGLAND
Aiden O’NEILL	Burnley FC, ENGLAND
Milislav POPOVIC	Eintracht Braunschweig II, GERMANY
Jaushua SOTIRIO	Western Sydney Wanderers FC, AUSTRALIA
Aleksandar SUSNJAR	FK Mlada Boleslav, CZECH REPUBLIC
Ruon TONGYIK	Melbourne City FC, AUSTRALIA
Brandon WILSON	Perth Glory, AUSTRALIA

By a process of elimination, Deng must have been the other starting CB and McGree and O'Niell were highly likely to be the other midfielders

So something like
Izzo
Cowburn - Susnjar - Deng - Garuccio
McGree - O'Neill - Mauk
Buhagiar - Juric - Hrustic

Glover, Gersbach, Kamau, and Popovic seeing no game time.

Use this thread for the youth teams guys 

http://forum.insidesport.com.au/2193189/Australia-U172023-National-Team-Tournaments-amp-Discussion-Thread---U16-AFF-CHAMP?PageIndex=229

World Cup hopeful Hrustic sets course for Russia

Such are the vagaries of football, players in the Australian camp for the under-23 Asian Championships have a wide range of motivations.

Some are eager to wear the Olyroos shirt ahead of the 2020 Olympics - a highlight of any athlete's career.

Older players, ineligible for Tokyo, might prefer to be at home with their A-League clubs.

Others are using the tournament to get precious match minutes to impress their club bosses.

And some are thinking bigger.

Hrustic is one of the few in Ante Milicic's squad with experience in the Socceroos set-up and he wants more.

"I'm in camp to get minutes to show myself with the new Socceroos coach coming in," he told AAP.

The controversial selection policy for the tournament means a host of senior players have been taken out of the A-League.

Hrustic - who started in a 2-1 warm-up win over Thailand on Saturday - is happy to be there.

The 21-year-old, who shot into Ange Postecoglou's national team plans off the back of form with Groningen in the Netherlands, has found club football hard to come by.

He has just a handful of starts in the Dutch league since making his debut for the Socceroos at the MCG against Brazil in June.

A poorly-timed red card saw the Melburnian lose his place before a four-week groin injury meant no more club football before the Dutch league's winter break.

It's Dutch and go for Hrustic in quest to become Socceroos regular

Freshly-minted Socceroos midfielder Ajdin Hrustic is primed to take the next step in his burgeoning career, with the new Eredivisie season offering him the chance to nail down a national team spot.

Given his poor end to 2017, Hrustic hopes the China-based tournament can kickstart his year with a World Cup looming.

"I'm slowly getting fit again. I had eight days off for holidays and I worked every day and I'm back in full team training now," he said.

"I'm going step by step. First I'm looking at this month, then I'm looking to club football and then to a World Cup.

"A World Cup is a World Cup, it's a dream to play in one.

"Even pulling the green and gold on for the Olyroos means a lot to me.

"I'm really hungry to show myself and get the best out of myself."

While the motivations of the squad might differ, Hrustic said the competitive and professional nature of the players in camp would ensure a united showing.

"I want to make a good impression here with Ante but I want the best for the team and Ante," he said.

"We're getting along great at the moment. Everyone is helping each other on and off the field. There's a bond."

https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2018/01/08/world-cup-hopeful-hrustic-sets-course-russia

Make sure you subscribe to The AFC Hub on Youtube; they've just started streaming the first game of the tournament now, bit of an opening ceremony going on:



Unsure as yet if the Australian games will be geoblocked on this.

Chris Beath reffing the first game between China and Oman, how's he going to survive without VAR?

China win 3:0. AFC hub had a stream. 

Good to hear. 

Is this game tonight?

Thursday. Gotcha. 

Qataris also dicking a 1-0 win over Uzbek in group A. Boo.

Nice one, hopefully they show the game.

It's a pretty strong squad tbh. They probably wished they chose Arzani now after last night's efforts.

Champness joining as well will make it interesting. Hope they do well.

Fox Sports have confirmed they're streaming the full match on Thursday online, with only the second half being shown on the TV - source

Asia - AFC U23 Championship
69'	Korea DPR U23	1 - 0	Thailand U23	View events	More info
70'	Iraq U23	2 - 0	Malaysia U23	View events	More info
	Japan U23	22 : 30	Palestine U23		More info
	Jordan U23	22 : 30	Saudi Arabia U23

Current scores on soccerway. Big session tonight. 

Iraq 4 Malaysia 1
North Korea 1 Thailand 0

It would be much better for U23s if Aus played in the Asean Cup. These games are against mens teams in their own countries. Much better prep for a Socceroos career playing in a hostile stadium than China. NB I think Asean squad should be stronger than U23 but have some included.

Milicic, who oversaw a 2-1 warm-up friendly win against Thailand's under-23s on Saturday, said a number of Europe-based players didn't come into camp.

He listed Chris Ikonomidis, Brandon Borello, Awer Mabil, Cameron Burgess, and Jordan Lyden (injured) as players that declined the call, either personally or by their clubs.

Interesting Ikonomidis opted out. Maybe trying to sort out club future before window closes.

when aussies playing

11th job done

It's so unfair for the Aussie based players not to have the choice. 

Fear to speak out.

Australia v Syria at 7pm AEDT tonight.

The other match in our group, South Korea v Vietnam, will be on after.

Make sure you subscribe to The AFC Hub on Youtube. Not sure if the Australia game will be geoblocked yet, but they're certainly worth a sub anyway.

Hopefully. Goodness knows he needs to be playing somewhere.

NPLV starts in a month.

Why is this a big tournament?

Didn't they say they'd stream the first half? What happened with that?