Bunbury-born defender Josh Risdon is in line to become Glory’s newest Socceroo after being selected by coach Holger Osieck to participate in a training camp ahead of next month’s EAFF East Asian Cup in South Korea.
Bunbury-born defender Josh Risdon is in line to become Glory’s newest Socceroo after being selected by coach Holger Osieck to participate in a training camp ahead of next month’s EAFF East Asian Cup in South Korea.
20 Australian-based players will head to the Central Coast on Monday for the five-day camp, with the tournament itself set to get underway in South Korea on 20th July. And Risdon will have at least two familiar faces alongside him in the form of Glory team-mates Scott Jamieson and Michael Thwaite, both of whom have also been named in the squad.
“I’m delighted and I just can’t wait to get over there,” said Risdon.
“I got a call from someone at FFA saying that I was invited to the camp next week and I was pretty excited at getting my first Socceroos chance.
“I was straight onto my parents to tell them and they were really excited and proud as well.
“It was definitely a shock.
“I was expecting to go to pre-season training on Monday with the rest of the team and it completely caught me off-guard.”
Still just 20, the pacy right-back has been rewarded for another stellar A-League campaign, during which he made his 50th appearance for the club and is desperate to make the final squad which will be pitted against Japan, China and hosts South Korea in the week-long, round-robin competition.
“I haven’t been told exactly how it’s going to work in terms of the squad,” he said, “but I presume the numbers will get cut down and I think there’s another camp before we actually go to South Korea for the tournament.
“If I do make the cut, this will be my first trip to Korea so I’m really looking forward to it.
“It’ll be a great experience to test myself against the other three big guns of Asian football.”
And Risdon is understandably pleased that Thwaite and Jamieson will be there to help ease him into the national team set-up.
The duo did of course both feature prominently as the Socceroos booked their maiden appearance in the East Asian Cup via a qualifying series played out in Hong Kong late last year.
“It’ll be great to have those two there,” he said.
“They’ve experienced a few more camps than I have and I’m sure Jamo will try and show me a few things that I need to look out for!
“I haven’t spoken to them yet because I didn’t know the full squad, but I’ll be sending them a text before we head over to the Central Coast.”
Gareth Morgan
