The Young Socceroos’ Newcastle Jets connection will once again be looking to shine against El Salvador on Wednesday morning.
The Young Socceroos- Newcastle Jets connection will once again be looking to shine when they take on El Salvador in their second group match of the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Turkey on Wednesday morning.
Joshua Brillante, Connor Chapman, Andrew Hoole and Adam Taggart all started in the Young Socceroos- impressive 1-1 draw with South American Champions Colombia in their World Cup opener.
Chapman paid tribute to Jets head coach Gary van Egmond for allowing the four young Jets to get valuable first-team experience in the A-League last season, which has held them in good stead for the tournament.
“I think it-s excellent to have four Jets players in the starting line-up and it-s a big credit to Gary van Egmond,” Chapman said.
“He-s had a lot of faith in us in Newcastle and he-s given us a lot of experience back in Australia in the A-League.
“I think that-s paid off and you can see that with four of us in the starting line-up.
“That experience has been tremendous for us, not only personally, but for the team as well.
“It-s great to play with players that you-re used to and players that you know. We-ve got a great mix of lads here.”
Chapman said the Young Socceroos had been buoyed by their performance against the Colombians, giving them confidence for the remainder of the tournament.
“I think it was a great opening match,” Chapman said.
“The lads were quite confident at the start, usually you-re a bit nervous, but I think we-ve been together for a little bit now and that certainly helped us.
“It was good to get that first game under our belts and now we can focus on the rest of the matches… our aim is to get through the group, so hopefully we can do that.
“We watched El Salvador-s game on TV and I think they-re a very good team.
“Every team here is a very good team and you don-t get here if you don-t deserve to be here, so it-s going to be a good match up.
“Both teams are going to be out there to win, so hopefully we can get that result and put ourselves in a good position in our group.”
Chapman said the key to beating El Slavador is to make sure the Young Socceroos do not stray from the style of play that worked so well for them in their opening match.
“I think we just need to stick to our game plan. If we play as well as we did against Colombia and play to our best, we should be able to get the job done.,” Chapman said.
“We-ve been working hard on that for two years now and it-s a credit to the coaching staff to get us to play like that.
“Sometimes it-s been hard, because when you first change something, sometimes it can be hard to adapt.
“It-s starting to pay off in the form of results now. In the game against Colombia we kept the ball quite well and it paid off.”
The Young Socceroos take on El Salvador at 1am on Wednesday morning Australian time.
