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23 players named to CNMI U18 team
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Posted on Aug 22 2019
Sebastien Manabat, seen here working on the ball against a Guam defender during last month’s 2019 Marianas Cup at the Guam Footballl Association National Training Center, will play in the CNMI U18 team that will compete in the Northern Marianas Invitational Football Tournament at the NMI Soccer Training Center in Koblerville. (Guam Football Association)
Twenty-three players have been selected for the CNMI Boys U18 National Team that will compete in the Northern Marianas Invitational Football Tournament at the NMI Soccer Training Center in Koblerville.
The group has the core of the U19 team that represented the Commonwealth in the 2019 Marianas Cup held in Guam last month. The roster also has several U15 players getting ready for an off-island tournament. Goalies Merrick Toves, Jason Quimzon, and John Bucayo are on the list, which also includes defenders Ronnel Ocanada, Eunsyu Hahn, Thaiphi Austria, Kirt Andon, Razeff Altamirano, Akira Kadokura, and Daniel Pablo, midfielders Sebastien Manabat, Joshua Waldo, John Michael Rojas, Jeremiah Diaz, Joshua Deleon, Kohtaro Goto, Brian Lubao, and Skyler Poon, and forwards Kaden Church, Taka Borja, Oliver Fajardo, and Jim Maniago.
The team will play against the M-League All-Stars, Beijing Elite Core Football Club, and the Beijing 97 Return United Football Club in the inaugural tournament that will run from Aug. 24 to 26.
Northern Mariana Islands Football Association technical director Michiteru Mita will be the CNMI U18 squad’s coach and the team will play its first game this Saturday against Beijing Elite at 4:30pm. Up next for the U18 crew is the M-League All-Stars as they square off on Sunday at 5pm, while the former’s match versus Beijing 97 is set for Monday, also at 5pm.
Meanwhile, the two visiting teams are made up of players in the 20-and-above age group.
Beijing 97 Return United Football Club, which was founded in 2009, is bringing in 12 players for the three-day tournament and will be led by captain and forward Yifan Zhang. Hongpeng Li is the head coach, while Xiaoguang Qin and Huan Xu are the team manager and executive coach, respectively. The club has been competing in various tournaments around China.
Beijing Elite Core Football Club is a relatively new group, as it was just established last year and membership is by invitation not through public recruitment.
The club’s founder and chief executive officer Zhenxing Wang will lead the 21-man delegation and he will also serve as team manager. Zhiliang Jiang will coach the visiting squad, which has two co-captains in Ye Xiao and Wenlong Yan.
