Brunei U-19 team set off for Myanmar

THE U-19 national football team has left for Yangon, Myanmar yesterday morning to compete in the Asean Football Federation (AFF) Under-19 Championship 2011.

The event will commence on Sept 8 - 21.

Amongst the teams that will feature in the championship, Brunei is pit in Group B along with host country Myanmar, Indonesia Laos and Vietnam.

Teams in Group A consist of Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia and Cambodia.

The opening match of the championship will see Brunei play Vietnam on the opening day in the Group A battle.

Brunei's following match will be against Laos on Sept 10, Myanmar two days later and their final group stage match will see the national squad take on Indonesia on Sept 14.

The competition will mark Brunei's return to the international arena after their 22-month Fifa ban which was lifted on May 30, 2011.

Awang Ali Bin Haji Ismail from the National Football Association of Brunei Darussalam (NFABD) will be heading the U-19 national team in this expedition.

Despite being inactive in the international football scene, team manager Pg Hj Yusri believes that the team is well prepared for the challenge.

"I think they're ready, even if it's just one month of preparation for this championship this is the best team we can get. With the time constraints and all, it's not an excuse for me," he said.

"For me, this team is the best."

A stringent selection process was employed to select the worthy players for the U-19 team and there has been no let up in training throughout the entire month of Ramadhan."So far it is okay, the coach has prepared a training programme for them to follow during the fasting month. I think it's just perfect, to suit the troubling month," said Pg Hj Yusri.

"We had a friendly match with the U-18 team that recently left for Bangkok and we saw results from there, our boys have showed that they have made improvements," he added.

The Brunei Times