Sydney FC Youth

Sydney Youth

Full name	Sydney Football Club Youth
Nickname(s)	Sydney Youth
Founded	2008
Ground	Lambert Park
Ground Capacity	7,000
Owner	David Traktovenko
Chairman	Scott Barlow
Head coach	Rob Stanton
League	NYL NPLNSW2
2013–14	NYL, 1st
Website	Club home page
Home colours Away colours

Sydney FC Youth is an Australian semi-professional association football team based in Sydney, New South Wales. Founded in 2008, it is the youth and reserve team of Sydney FC. The team currently plays in National Youth League and they will compete in the National Premier Leagues NSW 2 in 2016.

History

The youth team was founded in 2008, as a Sydney FC representative team for the National Youth League (NYL) competition. The team consisted of twelve contracted youth positions with four overage players (from the senior squad) allowed to participate in games. The side had initially contracted Football Superstar winner, Adam Hett, but had to be replaced for the campaign due to a season ending knee injury.^[1] In its first season Sydney FC Youth won the 2008–09 NYL Championship, with former Socceroo & NSL stalwart, Steve O'Connor as the coach. Throughout the season the side dominated many games and finished the regular season on top of the ladder with 13 wins, 2 draws, 3 losses and 6 points clear of second-placed Adelaide United Youth. The pair then went straight to a Grand Final match, of which Sydney FC Youth emphatically took out the tournament with a 2–0 victory at Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide.^[2] The goalscorers were Ibrahim Haydar and Robbie Mileski. Many of the Sydney FC Youth players in the Grand Final went on to have success for the senior squad or found a home elsewhere. They included Vedran Janjetovic, Rhyan Grant, Matt Jurman, Antony Golec and Brendan Gan. Sydney FC Youth were unable to follow it up the following year, finishing fifth on the ladder and missing out on the finals series due to goal difference (behind Gold Coast United FC Youth, who went on to win the Championship).

After the second season, club legend Steve Corica replaced Steve O'Connor as head coach. The team had mixed success finishing fourth on the standings with 30 points behind Gold Coast United FC Youth on 41 points. The competition did not have a finals series for the first time. A few players from this cohort went on to play for the first team, including Dimitri Petratos, Nathan Sherlock, Joel Chianese and Blake Powell.^[3] To take up a more senior assistant role with the first team, Corica relinquished the head coach position for the 2011–12 season. He was replaced by Ian Crook. Again Sydney FC Youth were mid-table, finishing sixth. Crook himself went on to bigger things the following year, taking over head coach duties for the first team. Brian Dene came in as coach of the Youth team. The season became Sydney FC Youth's worst performance in the team's five-year history, finishing ninth. With the first team also struggling with performance and injuries, many of the Youth team played up in the first's team, which did not help the cause. Some of these players included Christopher Naumoff, Hagi Gligor, Peter Triantis and Aaron Calver.^[4] Steve Corica then returned as head coach for Sydney FC Youth with immediate success. The side won the Foxtel National Youth League Championship for the 2013–14 season. Unable to repeat this performance the following year, Corica again relinquished his duties as head coach to focus on his role within the senior squad.

Entry into National Premier Leagues

In early 2015, it was confirmed that Sydney FC would compete in the NPL NSW 2 competition from the 2016 season onwards.^[5] This followed a competition review by Football NSW that recommended the youth teams of Sydney FC, Western Sydney Wanderers and Central Coast Mariners join the National Premier Leagues. Along with a team playing first grade, an under-20 and under-18 team would also compete in their appropriate age groups. The team forms the top level of the Sydney FC academy, unveiled in January 2016.^[6] Rob Stanton took over the reigns as head coach due to the heavily increased workload of the new competition.^[7][8] In the new National Youth League format with a shortened season, Sydney FC Youth started out of the block early recording three consecutive wins. Through the ten round campaign, the team lost only two games, both against Newcastle Jets Youth. The team sat two points clear of Newcastle to end the regular season in first place for Conference B. As Conference B winners, Sydney FC Youth played Adelaide United Youth for the premiership in a curtain raiser to A-League Round 16 match between Central Coast Mariners and Western Sydney Wanderers on 23 January, 2016. Sydney FC Youth were convincing winners, taking out the premiership with a scoreline of 5–2.

Many influential faces returned for the debut of the team in the National Premier Leagues setup. These included, Spyrakis, Timotheou, Araujo, Burgess, Lokolingoy and Antoniou. Notable exceptions included Anthony Bouzanis, Aaron Calver and George Blackwood as they had also signed senior contracts and were ineligible for the tournament. The team's debut match did not go according to plan, losing to Mounties FC 2–0 at home (Lambert Park).^[9] The side then went on a thrilling ten-game winning streak, that included some big wins (7–0 against Macarthur Rams^[10] and 7–4 against Bankstown Berries).^[11] The streak ended in somewhat unfortunate circumstances against Marconi Stallions as Sydney FC Youth, after leading 1–0, allowed in two goals in last five minutes of the Round 12 clash to lose 2–1. The following game saw another defeat for the Sky Blues, suffering defeat in the "mini derby" against rivals Western Sydney Wanderers Youth. A win, then a draw to Mounties FC in the Round 14 make-up game, then two more losses, meant Sydney FC Youth only picked up four points out of a possible 24, with title hopes looking shaky. However, Sydney FC Youth would get back on track with wins against Bankstown City Lions FC and St George FC. Sydney FC Youth remained undefeated in the final four rounds of the regular season to win the Premiers Plate, two points ahead of Western Sydney Wanderers Youth. Infact, the final day was a very tense affair, as the two clubs were matched up against each other. The Wanderers, who were trailing by 3 points and −10 points differential needed a very large win to leap-frog the Sky Blues. However, the sides played out a 4–all draw at Popondetta Park and Sydney FC Youth were declared premiers.

Stadium

The team's home ground is Lambert Park in the suburb of Leichhardt where they will play both NYL and NPL matches. The teams also shares Sydney FC's club's training base at Macquarie University in North Ryde.

Current squad

National Youth League

As of 8 November 2016^[12]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Mitchell Evans 2 DF Brendan Curtis 3 DF Patrick Flottmann 5 MF Matthew Green 6 MF Nicola Kuleski (Co-captain) 7 FW Daniel Maskin 8 FW Juan Zapata 9 FW Bai Antoniou 10 MF Aaron Avery 11 MF Chris Arditti

No. Position Player 12 FW Charles Lokolingoy 13 DF Liam McGing 14 DF Cristian Gonzalez 15 MF Sam McIllhatton 16 DF William Mutch 17 MF Chris Zuvela (Co-captain) 18 FW Mani Gonzalez 19 FW John Iredale 20 GK Nick Sorras 21 MF Andrea Agamemnonos

National Premier Leagues First Grade squad

As of 15 March 2016 ^[13]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player GK Duro Dragicevic GK Nicholas Sorras DF Patrick Flottman DF Cristian Gonzalez DF Liam McGing DF George Timotheou DF Christian Trovato MF Daniel Araujo MF Daniel Arzani MF Aaron Avery MF Max Burgess

No. Position Player MF Zac Duncan MF Brendan Curtis MF Matthew Green MF Lachlan Hughes MF Nicola Kuleski MF Tom Slater MF Yianni Spyrakis MF Chris Zuvela FW Bai Antoniou FW Emmanuel Gonzalez FW Charles Lokoli-Ngoy FW Daniel Maskin

National Premier Leagues U-20's squad

As of 15 March 2016 ^[14]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player GK Mitch Evans DF Andrea Agamemnonos DF Cooper Coskerie DF Leo Malfara DF Ben Van Meurs MF Chris Arditti MF Finn Ballard-McBride

No. Position Player MF Jay Foster MF John Iredale MF Jordan Koton MF Will Todd FW Sam McIllhatton FW Juan Zapata

Technical staff

Position	Name
Head Coach	Robert Stanton
Assistant Youth Coach	David Zdrilic
Goalkeeping Coach	Brody Crane
Physiotherapist	Anthony Demasi
Team Manager	Michael Swibel

Head Coaches

Seasons

Correct as of the end of the 2015–16 season.

¹ Top scorer only includes goals scored from league matches (National Youth League and NYL Finals or National Premier Leagues).

Honours

Domestic

• National Youth League
  • Premiers (3): 2008–09, 2013–14, 2015–16^{[nb 1]}
  • Champions (2): 2008–09, 2015–16

• National Premier Leagues NSW 2
  • Premiers (1): 2016
  • U-20's Premiers (1): 2016
  • U-18's Runners-Up (1): 2016

International

• International U-21 Thanh Niên Newspaper Cup
  • Runners-Up (1): 2013
  • Third-place (1): 2012

Notes

See also

• Sydney FC

References

External links

• Official website