Sri Lanka national under-23 football team

Sri Lanka U-23 Football Team

Nickname(s)	ල০කා සි০හයෝ , Lankan Lions
Association	Football Federation of Sri Lanka
Sub-confederation	SAFF (South Asia)
Confederation	AFC (Asia)
Head coach	Nikola Kavazovic
Captain	Dananju Madushan
FIFA code	SRI
First colours Second colours
First international
Sri Lanka 1 - 0 Nepal (Islamabad, Pakistan; March 29, 2004)
South Asian Games
Appearances	3
Best result	Silver Medal (2006)

Sri Lanka National U-23 Team is the National team which participate in international Football Tournaments like Summer Olympics and AFC U-23 Championship representing Sri Lanka. The team has won the First Bronze Medal in 2004 South Asian Games and in 2014 Lusophony Games. Before AFC U-23 Championship.Sri Lanka won the Silver Medal in 2006 South Asian Games.It was the First Silver Medal won by Sri Lanka in an international tournament.

Sri Lanka didn't have any official U-23 team.Before 2013 Sri Lanka national football team participated in the Summer Olympic qualifications and other international events. Sri Lanka is yet to participate in Summer Olympic football tournament.

History

Due to the popularity of cricket in Sri Lanka, football has been not popular. But in recent years football has become more popular with Sri Lanka's youth. As a result, Sri Lanka's National U-23 Football team was formed. In the 2010s, the Sri Lanka national football team competed in the International football tournaments.Sri Lanka u-23 team has won a silver medal and two Bronze Medals in competitions.

2006 South Asian Games was the 10th edition of the Tournament.It was held in Sri Lanka.In the football tournament Sri Lanka competed in the group stage against Pakistan,Bhutan and Maldives u-23 Football Teams. Sri Lanka won the Bronze Medal in the Previous 2004 tournament. Sri Lanka beat Maldives and Bhutan to qualify for the Semi Final stage and Beat India in Penalties to qualify for the final with Pakistan and lost it 1-0.Sri Lanka won the Silver Medal as a result.

Sri Lanka has participated in AFC U-23 Championship Qualifiers competition as an in experienced football team.Because of that they couldn't win a single match.The first match was played with Palestine. Sri Lanka did well to draw this game with the first goal of a major U-23 football tournament that was scored by bandara in the 73rd minute.

In the next match with Pakistan also ended with a draw.None of the players from both teams failed to score a goal in the full-time. In the next match against the power full and experienced Syria national under-23 football team Sri Lanka lost the game 4-0. In the next match they played against the host Saudi Arabia and lost the game 7-0 after the full-time and it was the Biggest defeat of the team in the tournament.In the last match of the qualifiers Sri Lanka played against the Kyrgyzstan team and lost 5-0 and failed to qualify for the inaugural AFC U-22 Championship tournament.

The Palestine Championship tournament was organized by the Palestinian Football Association. Four Olympic national u-23 teams played against each other in this tournament by the invitation of Palestinian Football Association. The national u-23 teams of Palestine, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Jordan competed in this tournament.

Sri Lanka played their first match against Pakistan national under-23 football team. They lost the match 3-0.In the next match Sri Lanka played against the host Palestine and lost that game also 3-0. Sri Lanka played their last match in the tournament against Jordan national under-23 football team.It also ended with a lost for Sri Lanka after the final score 4-0. Sri Lanka failed to score a goal in this tournament and lost all three matches. Sri Lanka national under-23 football team participated in 2014 Lusophony Games for the first time. Sri Lanka team advanced to the Semi Final stage of this tournament by defeating Macau and drew against Sao Tome and Principe.In the semifinals Sri Lanka lost the match against Mozambique 1-0 and won the Bronze Medal match against Macau 3-0. This was the first time that Sri Lanka u23 team won a major international tournament.

Sri Lanka entered to 2016 AFC U-23 Championship Qualification stage with the national u-23 teams from UAE,Yemen and Tajikistan.Sri Lanka lost both opening games against the host UAE and Yemen 4-0 and 5-0.They lost to Tajikistan 5-1 in the last group match. Sri Lanka's very disappointing football skills were seen in this Tournament.Sri Lanka scored only one goal in the tournament.After losing all three matches Sri Lanka Team failed to qualify for the Summer Olympics 2016 Football Tournament.

Competitive record

Olympic Games

Olympic Games finals										Olympic Games qualifications
Hosts/year	Result	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA	GD		GP	W	D	L	GS	GA
2016	Did not Qualify									3	0	0	3	1	14
2020	TBD									TBD
Total	0/2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-		3	0	0	3	1	14

• Prior to the 2016 Olympic Games campaign, the senior national team played in qualification.

AFC U-23 Championship

AFC U-22 finals										AFC U-22 Championship qualification
Hosts/Year	Result	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA	GD		GP	W	D	L	GS	GA
2013	Did not Qualify									5	0	2	3	1	17
2016										3	0	0	3	1	14
Total	0/2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-		8	0	2	6	2	31

South Asian Games

Year	Host	Pos.	P	W	D	L	GF	GA
2004	Pakistan	3/7	4	3	0	1	2	0
2006	Sri Lanka	2/8	5	4	0	1	6	3
2010	Bangladesh	5/8	3	1	1	1	1	2
2016	India	5/6	2	1	0	1	2	3
Total			14	9	1	4	11	8

• Prior to the 2004 South Asian Games campaign, the senior national team played in the tournament.

Fixtures and results

2015

      Win       Draw       Lose

United Arab Emirates v Sri Lanka

27 March 2015 AFC U-23 Q.	United Arab Emirates	4-0	Sri Lanka	Fujairah, United Arab Emirates
16:45 UTC+4	Mubarak  15' Saeed  30' (pen.) Al-Gheilani  52' Roshan  64' (o.g.)	Report		Stadium: Fujairah Club Stadium, Fujairah Attendance: 2,423 Referee: Wang Di (CHN)

Sri Lanka v Yemen

29 March 2015 AFC U-23 Q.	Sri Lanka	0-5	Yemen	Fujairah, United Arab Emirates
16:45 UTC+4		Report	Mahdi  1' Al-Sarori  14' Al-Hubaishi  57' Al-Gabr  65', 90+5'	Stadium: Fujairah Club Stadium, Fujairah Attendance: 200 Referee: Prathap Singh (IND)

Tajikistan v Sri Lanka

31 March 2015 AFC U-23 Q.	Tajikistan	5-1	Sri Lanka	Fujairah, United Arab Emirates
19:45 UTC+4	Umarbdev  37' (pen.) Rakhmatov  46' Aliev  71' Rustamov  82' Ergashev  88'	Report	Zarwan  25'	Stadium: Fujairah Club Stadium, Fujairah Attendance: 150 Referee: Khamis Al-Kuwari (QAT)

2016

      Win       Draw       Lose

India v Sri Lanka

6 February 2016 SA Games	India	0-1	Sri Lanka	Guwahati, India
14:15		Report	Rifnas  14'	Stadium: Nehru Stadium, Guwahati Attendance: 8,000

Maldives v Sri Lanka

8 February 2016 SA Games	Maldives	3-1	Sri Lanka	Guwahati, India
17:00	Nashid  10' Ansar  28' ,  58'	Report	Rifnas  61'	Stadium: Nehru Stadium, Guwahati

Squad

This is the squad played in 2016 AFC U-23 Championship qualification

0#0 Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Caps Goals Club 1 1GK Prabath Arunasiri 2 0 12 1GK Dhanushka Rajapaksha 2 0 22 1GK Mohamed Uzman 0 0 3 2DF Asikumar Rahuman (1993-12-31) December 31, 1993 7 0 Pelicans SC 17 2DF Sunil Roshan 2 0 21 2DF Shanaka Wijesingha (1992-12-26) December 26, 1992 1 0 2 2DF Oshad Perera 0 0 6 2DF Chameera De Silva 1 0 13 2DF Mohamed Nifras 2 0 7 2DF Chaturanga Madushan (1993-11-16) November 16, 1993 8 0 Army 18 2DF Tharindu Lakmal 2 0 20 2DF Chameera Sajith 2 0 4 3MF Sahayam Godwin (1994-12-10) December 10, 1994 3 0 5 3MF Mohamed Rizkhan 2 0 7 3MF Mohamed Cassim 3 0 10 3MF Dhananju Madushan (C) 3 0 14 3MF Mohamed Rawzan 1 0 16 3MF Hasahn Darshaka 3 0 21 3MF Shanaka Wijesena 1 0 9 3MF Zarwan Johar (1996-02-15) February 15, 1996 8 4 Renown 8 4FW Udara Gamage 1 0 9 4FW Pradeep Rodrigo 1 0 11 4FW Iqbal Humaid 0 0 19 4FW Janith Pumal 1 0

Honors

• Lusophony Games:
  • Bronze Medal : 2014
• South Asian Games:
  • Silver Medal : 2006
  • Bronze Medal : 2004

See also

• Sri Lanka national football team
• Sri Lanka women's national football team
• Sri Lanka national under-20 football team
• Sri Lanka national under-17 football team

External links

• Football Federation of Sri Lanka
• Sri Lanka on FIFA