Sligo’s Seamus Keogh has been named on the Republic of Ireland U15 squad announced today by head coach Jason Donohue for a pair of friendly internationals against the Netherlands later this month.
The Benbulben FC youngster will travel to the Netherlands with the rest of the squad to face their hosts in fixtures on Tuesday, January 31, and Thursday, February 2, for games at the KNVB training centre in Zeist.
Keogh was part of the Irish U15 squad that drew 0-0 and lost 2-1 in two games against Poland in November.
“With most of the players’ club seasons transitioning to operating in the calendar year format from now on we had to put a plan in place to keep the players ticking over during January in particular,” said Donohue.
“With the cooperation of the clubs, leagues and the SFAI’s assistance with All-Ireland cup fixtures, we’re bringing them in each weekend in January in preparation for the double-header against the Netherlands.
“We are using this as an opportunity to further look at players who played against Poland and after a centre of excellence assessment day over Christmas we have also made six changes from the squad that played in those games. Players were rewarded for good performances in the ETP programme.
“Within the weekends training in January we’ve analysed the Netherlands and we’re working on applying our principles of play within the four functions – defending, attacking and the transitions. Within that we’ve organised a training game against Paul Osam’s Ireland U16 squad and they will help us by setting up to play as we expect the Netherlands to play. That’ll help the players prepare for the demands of the games they’ll face in the double-header.
“Our objective in the Poland games was to make sure we could build out from the back competently and against Netherlands and we’ll try to progress that now and look to improve our play from midfield and in the final third while also keeping a good defensive structure.”
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND U15 SQUAD:
Conor Carty (St Francis FC)
Aaron Davies (Ratoath Harps)
Alex Dunne (Belvedere FC)
Ayodeji Sotona (Manchester United)
Jack Funge (St Kevin’s Boys FC)
James Furlong (St Joseph’s Boys FC)
Armstrong Okoflex (Arsenal)
Harry Halwax (Leixlip United FC)
Brandon Holt (Belvedere FC)
Cian Kelly (St Joseph’s Boys FC)
Sean Kennedy (Tralee Dynamos FC)
Seamus Keogh (Benbulben FC)
Kian Leavy (St. Francis FC)
Matthew Healy (College Corinthians)
Sean McEvoy (St Kevin’s Boys FC)
Troy Parrott (Belvedere FC)
Timi Sobowale (Villa FC)
Cormac Moore (St Francis FC)
FIXTURES
U15 International Friendly
Tuesday, January 31
Netherlands v Republic of Ireland, KNVB Training Centre, Zeist (3.00pm Irish)
Thursday, February 2
Netherlands v Republic of Ireland, KNVB Training Centre, Zeist (2.00pm Irish)
