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Tough draw ... Young Socceroos coach Paul Okon (Getty)
The Young Socceroos have been drawn in Group D with Saudi Arabia, Syria and Qatar for the AFC Under-19 Championship which will be held in the United Arab Emirates from 3 to 17 November.
The draw was conducted in Dubai, which will be the host city for the tournament.
Australia was seeded in Pot 1 as the third-ranked team in the competition along with host nation UAE, DPR Korea and Korea Republic after results in the 2010 edition of the championship were considered.
Head coach Paul Okon knows that it will be a tough challenge to get through the group phase but is confident his players are up to the task.
"It’s definitely a tough draw but then again there are no easy games in international football at this level,” Okon said.
"We’ll have to be at our best to get through to the knockout stage and with the players that we have at our disposal this is an achievable goal.
"Our first training camp together will be early next month and with the draw now known we can all focus on the task at hand.”
The top two teams from each group will progress to the quarter-finals.The four semi-finalists will also qualify automatically for the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Turkey from 21 June to 13 July 2013.
AFC Under-19 Championship 2012 Iran
Group A: UAE, Japan, Iran, KuwaitGroup B: Korea Republic, China, Thailand, Iraq
Group C: DPR Korea, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Jordan
Group D: Australia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Qatar
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