The CommBank Olyroos will compete at the 2026 AFC Under-23 Asian Cup after qualifying as group winners.<\/p>\n
Australia\u2019s 0-0 draw with hosts China was enough for the Olyroos to book their spot at the January showpiece in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
CLICK HERE TO BECOME AN A-LEAGUES CLUB MEMBER TODAY!<\/a><\/p>\n Despite a scoreless stalemate, Tony Vidmar\u2019s unbeaten Olyroos progressed automatically as Group D winners, ahead of China on goal difference, with a host of Isuzu UTE A-League stars, past and present, on show.<\/p>\n NEXT GEN!\u00a0An image made in the A-Leagues shows the Socceroos\u2019 future is now<\/a><\/p>\n Australia\u2019s starting XI boasted Melbourne City\u2019s Championship-winning goalkeeper Patrick Beach, Perth Glory\u2019s Nathanael Blair, Western Sydney Wanderers defender Anthony Pantazopoulos, Adelaide United sensation Ethan Alagich, Central Coast Mariners defender Nathan Paull and Matthew Grimaldi, Rhys Bozinovski and Abel Walatee, who played for Western United in 2024-25.<\/a><\/p>\n WONDERKID WATCH: \u2018Role model\u2019 fuels academy\u2019s historic NPL pursuit with icon in the dugout<\/a><\/p>\n A-Leagues products Kealey Adamson (QPR), Oscar Priestman (Motherwell) and Giuseppe Bovalina (Vancouver Whitecaps) were also in the line-up.<\/p>\n \u201cWe came here knowing it was going to be a difficult match against a very good team,\u201d Vidmar told Xinhua post-match.<\/p>\n \u201cWe really fought hard in difficult conditions, so we\u2019re very proud.\u201d <\/p>\n The Olyroos ended the qualifying campaign without conceding a goal, while scoring 20 themselves en route to the Asian Cup, where Australia\u2019s U23 outfit are eyeing their first title.<\/p>\n Glory striker Blair spearheaded Australia with five goals \u2013 the joint-most goals in qualifying alongside Iran\u2019s Kasra Taheri and Jordanian winger Odeh Al-Fakhouri.<\/p>\n Blair will be hoping for more senior football in 2025-26 after swapping the Wanderers for Perth at the start of last season. He was limited to just 288 Isuzu UTE A-League minutes during his debut campaign with Glory.<\/p>\n BIG INTERVIEW:\u00a0Milligan\u2019s \u2018belief\u2019 for Aussie football inspired by a legend and what it means for Jet<\/a> Featured image: Football Australia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The CommBank Olyroos will compete at the 2026 AFC Under-23 Asian Cup after qualifying as group winners. Australia\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[20417,20418,20419,64,63,44],"class_list":["post-131536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-a-league-men","tag-a-leagues","tag-almfeatured","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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