Congratulations to the 3 Kerry players that played for the Republic of Ireland under 16 side last week in Sweden in a 4 team competition. Former St Brendans Park FC player Sean McGrath added to his recent caps on this tour.
Leo Gaxha of Tralee Dynamos who also played with St Brendans Park FC at under 14 level made his first appearances in the national colours which caps a great few weeks for Leo after signing for Sheffield Utd
Sean McGrath pictured on international duty earlier this year.
Sean Kennedy from Tralee Dynamos is also a terrific talent who had the honour of scoring against Turkey. Hopefully all 3 lads have big futures ahead in the game. Their progress is very exciting for all involved in Kerry soccer. All at St Brendan’ s Park FC are delighted for the lads, we wish them well.
Ireland U16: Swedish tournament ends with win
The Republic of Ireland Under-16s won their final match of the UEFA Development Tournament after a penalty shootout victory over Turkey, in Sweden.
22nd May 2018
The game finished 1-1 in normal time, with Ireland winning the penalty shootout 5-3.
Substitute Sean Kennedy from Kerry scored Ireland’s only goal five minutes from time to send the game to a penalty shootout. Joe Hodge, Ronan McKinley, Conrad Egan-Riley and Kennedy all scored their penalties, before Matt Healy scored the deciding spot kick for Paul Osam’s side.
Speaking after the game, Head Coach Paul Osam said he was pleased to see the team improve throughout the tournament.
“We played well, considering we conceded five goals in the previous two games. Today, we played more compact and on the counter-attack.
“We limited a very good Turkey side to two attempts in the game. It’s nice to finish the tournament with a win. The team did excellently today defensively.
“We played three really good teams this week. The team were a match for Sweden, Austria and today against Turkey, although the results didn’t show it overall. There was very little between all four teams in the tournament.”
Republic of Ireland: Daniel Rose; James Furlong, Conrad Egan-Riley, Luke Turner, Thomas Considine; Joe Hodge, Seamus Keogh, Brandon Holt; Leonardo Gaxha, Festy Ebosele, Sean McGrath.
Substitutes used: Matt Healy, Cillian Heaney, Conor Carty, Mazeed Ogungbo, Ronan McKinley, Sean Kennedy.
