Lal Brothers Off to the World Cup
Lachlan and Marcus are eagerly counting down the days until they pull on the Fijian jersey for the U20’s World Cup, to be held in May 2023 in Indonesia, after qualifying at the U19 Oceania Championship.
Recently Lachlan (Lachy) Lal represented Fiji at the U19 Oceania Championship where they finished 2nd place after a 3-0 loss to New Zealand in the final.
Unfortunately, due to a delay in paperwork Marcus was not able to join his brother at the tournament, however continued to cheer him on and now looks to their next adventure that is the U20’s World Cup.
A successful tournament for Lal and Fiji as the team managed to secure two wins and a draw in the group stage before advancing through the final’s series until the final two.
However, being part of this team meant more to Lal than just qualifying for the U20’s World Cup.
“Our grandfather, grandfathers’ brother, and dad all represented Fiji on some level, with our grandfather being the vice-captain at one point” Lachy said.
Continuing the Lal legacy this tournament was a chance for Lachy to experience a different type of football.
“It was great to see what football is like oversees especially in Oceania and to have a taste of what football is like outside of Australia.
“In Oceania it is fast and stronger football, it is different to Australia.
“It was good to see how they are progressing with football and how their coaches’ coach. We had a local coach so was good to see the insights to how Fiji football was.” Lachy said.
The brothers’ attention now falls to preparing for the U20 World Cup this coming May.
“It will be training, training, training and I expect we will do some tours before the World Cup” Lachy said.
Both brothers will be joining the squad and Marcus cannot wait to be able to join his brother and make his international debut.
“It’s one of those things you can’t imagine happening, it’s so far fetch” Marcus said.
“It is going to be really good to play beside my brother in such a big thing and I’m also looking forward to meeting lots of the next generation of football.
“You look at the past U20’s World Cup and you see all these great players coming through and all the best players played in it at some point so I’m excited to meet those players and play alongside them”
The FIFA U20’s World Cup will take in Indonesia from 20 May to 11 June.