This month the U-17 and senior national teams will be engaged in Euro tournaments.
Anthony Farrugia’s youth team will play in the Comen 2013, in Rome, between today and Sunday, and the national team, under the guidance of Karl Izzo, will play hosts for the European qualifi-cation tournament second phase next week at Tal-Qroqq.
ASA president Joe Caruana Curran yesterday spoke about the two teams’ participation at the two tournaments.
“The ASA appreciates the work put in by our coaches and players so that Malta will participate with credit in the international sphere,” he said.
“We have to think ahead and our strategies should be based on youth development.”
While mentioning the clubs’ role in bringing over foreigners of quality, which lift the local game, Caruana Curran hoped that the national teams will do well against some of the best Euro countries.
“Support for our team next week will also be vital since this could give us an edge over our oppo-nents,” he contended.
The ASA will be issuing block tickets for the five sessions of the European Championship at €15, whereas the entrance fee for one session will be €5.
Izzo gave details of the senior squad, saying that this time John Soler and Jerome Gabarretta will be available.
He said the other four teams in the group are all very strong, with Georgia being in the forefront. The others are Israel, Belarus and Ukraine.
As preparation for the tourna-ment, the national team will play an All-Star foreign selection of players based here on Monday evening at Tal-Qroqq, Izzo said.
The six top teams on points won out of the 17 participants in all the groups at this stage will proceed to stage three of the championship in September.
Malta’s schedule will be: vs Belarus (July 11 – 20.15), Israel (July 12 – 20.15), Ukraine (July 13 – 18.45) and Georgia (July 14 – 10.45).
Farrugia said that this will be a new experience for his U-17 players and even if they will be up against some of the elite teams such as Serbia, Italy, Montenegro and Greece (Georgia and Cyprus are also taking part in Rome), he looks forward to his young players giving their best.
Malta U-17 will be playing Greece today, followed by matches against Italy and Serbia tomorrow, Cyprus and Monte-negro on Saturday and against Georgia on Sunday.
National squad
Alan Borg Cole, Niki Lanzon, Steve Camilleri, Jordan Camilleri, Michele Stellini, Sean Gravina (Neptunes); John Soler, Jerome Gabarretta, Mark Meli, John Brownrigg, Timmy Sullivan (Sliema); Dean Camilleri, Matthew Zammit, Dino Zammit (San Ġiljan); Alex Attard (Sirens).
Note: The squad will be trimmed to 13 players.
Under-17 selection
Marc Lanzon, Camillo Matteo Cacici, Gabriel Mizzi, Miguel Zammit, Zach Mizzi, Marc Fenech, Aleandro Mifsud, Nicholas Bugelli, Andreas Galea, Ben Plumpton, Daniel Spiteri, Marc Grech, John Napier.