Young Socceroos to face side who ignited Messi's career
Nestory Irankunda could be in line for his first Young Socceroos call-up as Australia's under 20s begin their preparations for their first World Cup in a decade with mouthwatering warm-up friendlies against Argentina in Buenos Aires.
Fresh off winning the U20 Asian Cup in China earlier this year, Trevor Morgan's side are expected to receive a baptism of fire when they face Argentina on June 6 and June 9.
Argentina hold the fortunes of their youth national teams dearly and the two home friendlies, just a few months out from September's U20 World Cup in Chile, will likely garner significant interest.
Argentina have won the U20 World Cup a record six times, with Diego Maradona (1979), Lionel Messi (2005) and Sergio Aguero (2007) crowned player of the tournament on the way to lifting the trophy.
"The Argentinian federation, through various contacts we have, showed an interest in hosting us," Morgan told AAP.
"It fits perfectly with what we've tried to do with this group over the whole cycle.
"It's possible to play top teams - we played Chile and Uruguay last year.
"But Argentina's interest would be sparked by playing a team that's going to a World Cup.
"Winning the tournament (the U20 Asian Cup) maybe makes it a touch more interesting for them when they see there's a team that will have some quality about it."
Australia qualified for their first U20 World Cup since 2013, by being crowned Asian champions in March.
The feat - just Australia's third major trophy since joining the Asian confederation in 2006 - was all the more impressive considering Morgan was without some of his most high-profile names.
Irankunda, who has five senior Socceroos caps to his name, didn't make the trip, having just sealed a loan move to Grasshopper in Switzerland from parent club Bayern Munich.
The likes of Rhys Youlley, currently with Belgian side Westerlo, Portsmouth striker Tom Waddingham and PSV Eindhoven winger Marcus Younis also remained with their clubs.
Waddingham and Perth Glory's Zach Lisolajski are likely to miss out due to injury but Morgan is hopeful he will have an all-star cast at his disposal for June's friendlies with Argentina.
"They should all be available with it being a FIFA window, it's not like the Asian Cup where you are asking permission to have players released," Morgan said.
"There is good competition in this team and that's why the team was successful in the Asian Cup.
"We were missing seven or so very good players who normally might have been part of the squad and we were still good enough to win it, so these boys know that there's competition for every spot."
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Despite winning seven matches in a row to qualify, the Proteas arrive at Lord's for the World Test Championship final against Australia as underdogs. No.1 ranked Australia are gunning for back-to-back WTC trophies, having beaten India in the 2023 decider. But South Africa's history in ICC tournaments is a sorry one, having never lifted a ODI or T20 World Cup. The Proteas have lost all five ODI World Cup semi-finals, and were defeated by India in the T20 decider last year. Markram believes South Africa's previous performances in big games will count for little once the one-off Test begins on Wednesday. "This team is a bit different. Very different personnel to what the white-ball squad," Markram said at Lord's on Sunday. "We haven't addressed it too much. A few of us that have been part of previous ICC events that didn't go our way have dealt with it, chatted to each other and make sure we've buried it nicely. "It's more about the excitement of having another opportunity to actually do the job. "If we play good cricket, we'll give ourselves a fairly good chance of winning." South Africa never have the luxury of starting a tour slowly, having not played more than two Tests in a series since they travelled to Australia in 2022-23. On the other hand, Australia had to reel in a 1-0 deficit against India last summer to win the Border-Gavaskar trophy for the first time in a decade. Australia allrounder Beau Webster believed his side had probably earned the right to be favourites. "When you look at the guys in our dressing room and what they've accomplished, not just in this World Test cycle, but obviously in their careers, it's pretty amazing," Webster said. "The cattle we've got in our dressing room, I'm sure everyone's going in very confident into this Test. "We've got a very good record at Lord's, both individually with a few of our players, and as a collective the record here is good. "So everyone's going in with a lot of confidence." This AAP article was made possible by support from Amazon Prime Video, which is broadcasting the World Test Championship final.
