National Under-19 head coach
Dayem Hj Ali (standing C)
will be leaving to Bangkok
with the rest of the team
for the Oct 8-12 Asian
Football Confederation (AFC)
Under-19 Championship
qualifiers today. Picture:
BT file
The national Under-19 football team will leave today for the Oct 8-12 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Under-19 Championship qualifiers in Bangkok, Thailand.
Thailand join China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine and Qatar as co-hosts of the 40-team tournament, where the nine group winners will book a ticket to the October 2014 finals alongside the six second-best placed sides and hosts Myanmar.
The finals, to be held in Myanmar for the first time, will mark the 38th edition of the competition.
The tournament also serve as the qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 World Cup, with the top-four sides in the 2014 edition booking a place in the FIFA U-20 World Cup to be held in New Zealand in 2015.
Drawn alongside Singapore, Thailand and North Korea in Group H, the national team is made up of the same players who laced up for the country at the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Under-19 Championship in Surabaya, Indonesia last month.
Brunei failed to progress past the group stage in Surabaya after ending the tournament without a point to show from five games, where they let in a total of 30 goals.
Their only goal came in their last game, a 6-1 loss to Vietnam. They started off with a 5-0 defeat to Indonesia before being hammered 8-0 by Thailand. They were then beaten 6-0 by Myanmar and 5-0 by Malaysia.
Brunei will kick-off their campaign with a match against North Korea at the Thai-Japanese Stadium in Bangkok on Tuesday.
The team will face Singapore at the same venue on Thursday before ending their campaign against hosts Thailand two days later.
The 40 teams were divided into nine groups of four and five for the tournament.
Group A is made up of India, Nepal, Qatar, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan while Group B comprises of Afghanistan, Jordan, Maldives, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
Bangladesh, Iraq, Kuwait and Pakistan are pooled in Group C, Iran, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Tajikistan in Group D while Bahrain, Oman, Palestine and Syria will play in Group E.
Australia look to be the favourites in Group F, where they are joined by Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong, Mongolia and Vietnam.
Defending champions South Korea are pitted alongside hosts Indonesia, Guam, Laos and the Philippines in Group G while Japan are joined by China, Malaysia and Macau in Group I.
South Korea, who edged Iraq in the final of the last edition in 2012, have won the competition 12 times since introduced in 1959.