CNMI U19 team to AFC tourney named

Twenty-four players were named to the CNMI U19 National Team that will be competing in the AFC U19 Championship Bahrain 2016 Qualifiers in Bangkok, Thailand later this month.

The CNMI U19 National Team’s Ryan Relucio receives a pass from Greg Sablan during their scrimmage against U14 and U16 players yesterday at the Oleai Sports Complex Field.
(Roselyn B. Monroyo)

The list includes goalkeepers Christopher Aninzo and Joshua Galario, midfielders Emmanuel Aniana, Joel Fruit, Hunter Jewell, Jehn Joyner, Scott Kim, Yoshi Mafnas, Greg Sablan, and Terrence Thosert-Belcher, defenders Enrico Del Rosario, Euly James Ermitanio, Alan Hinson, Kennedy Izuka, Won Young Kim, John Diego Masga, Ryan Relucio, and Mareko Tekopua, and forwards Chad Shankweiller, Sean Perez, and Ryu Tanzawa, and reserves Reniel Relucio, Louie Calayag, and Jordan Butcher.

Northern Mariana Islands Football Association technical director Kiyoshi Sekiguchi will coach the squad and he will have Jershwin Angeles and Takemoto Suzuki as assistant and goalkeeper coach, respectively. Completing the CNMI representatives to the AFC event are head of delegation Elna Curate, NMIFA general secretary Ross Zapanta, team manager Norman Del Rosario, assistant team manager Angie Ito, and physiotherapist Pamela Ann Carhill.

The Commonwealth’s U19 crew will be playing in Bangkok from Sept. 28 to 4, but will leave Saipan a week early as the squad will hold training camp in Chonburi from Sept. 22 to 25. The group will arrive in Chonburi in batches as five players will come from the U.S. mainland, while six will travel from Laos, which is the host for a separate Asian Football Confederation-sanctioned tournament (AFC U16 Championship India 2016 Qualifiers).

The team is now on the final stage of its preparation for the competition in Bangkok, focusing on its plays, tactics, and adjustments on game situations. Yesterday, Angeles facilitated drills among the eight members of the squad, while Sekiguchi officiated and observed a scrimmage between other U19 players and the CNMI U16 National Team. Suzuki was on the sideline, watching the proceedings go and occasionally giving out instructions to players.

Sekiguchi’s crew will need all the time and training they could get here and in Chonburi, where they will play an exhibition match against a local club, as the CNMI bets will face tough opponents in Group H of the qualifiers.

The CNMI team will duel a familiar foe in Chinese-Taipei in its debut game on Sept. 28. The Commonwealth players have played against Chinese-Taipei in previous East Asian Football Federation events. Next up for Sekiguchi and company is Singapore, which will challenge a CNMI male squad for the first time (an all-female team collided against the Singaporeans in the Luen Thai Cup in Hong Kong in July this year). The NMIFA-backed team will have back-to-back games against unfamiliar foes, as it squares off against host Thailand on Oct. 2, two days after facing Singapore. The CNMI crew will then close out against fellow EAFF member South Korea on Oct.4.

The top finisher in Group H and nine other pools along with the five best second-placed teams will advance to the finals in Bahrain next year.