The Westfield Junior Matildas have qualified for the second round of the 2019 AFC Under 16 Women’s Championship qualifiers after finishing on top of Group D.

Five Queensland players featured in the 23-player squad, including Brisbane Roar NTC trio Georgia Beaumont, Charlotte Farmer and Jorja Thomson, Eastern Suburbs’ Kezia Pritchard and JCU Strikers FC’s Mia Bailey.

The Westfield Junior Matildas opened their campaign with two dominant 11-0 wins over Palestine and Indonesia, before defeating hosts Kyrgyz Republic 10-0 and rounding out the initial qualifiers with a 7-0 win over Chinese Taipei.

They’ve scored an impressive 39 goals in four games – seven of those through Queenslander Beaumont – and conceded no goals in the first round of qualifiers.

After the game against Kyrgyz Republic, Westfield Junior Matildas, coach Rae Dower said she was proud of the performance of the young players.

“Today was another football experience and learning opportunity for the players against the Kyrgyz Republic in front of a parochial home crowd,” Dower said.

“It was a positive performance and I’m immensely proud of the team.

“We’ve now had all 23 players debut for their country across the three games, had a number of multiple goal scorers and managed another clean sheet.”

The second round of qualifiers will begin in February 2019, where Australia will compete against Bangladesh, China PR, Iran, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines and Vietnam, before the 2019 AFC Under 16 Women’s Championship kicks off in Thailand in September 2019.

 

Words: Elizabeth Lepre