Venezuela's Under 17 football team plays Russia Wednesday in a qualification match to select the four best third-place teams of the six groups and advance to the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates.

Venezuela's coach, Rafael Dudamel, said the team was excited to compete for a chance to play in their first World Cup, especially as South America's No. 2 team, and will fight to the end despite two consecutive defeats.

As part of Group D, Venezuela lost 2-1 to Tunisia and then 3-1 to Japan.

Both Tunisia and Japan have qualified for the quarter-finals and will play each other Thursday at Sharjah to see who leads Group D.

Venezuela has to decisively beat Russia, which also lost to Tunisia and Japan (both 1-0s), to secure third place and advance to the next round.

But that alone won't be enough. Venezuela has to hope teams in other groups don't perform too well, so it can hold on to third place.

Dudamel said qualifying was "a possibility that we are going to go after, though the most difficult task is lifting the boys' morale, after a tough defeat at the hands of Japan, which has simply been spectacular."

"Throughout the process (of qualifying), we had never been defeated like that," he added.

Venezuela is feeling the loss of its star forward Andres Ponce, out due to an injury. Ponce scored seven of the team's total eight goals in this year's South American championship. Endi

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