Sydney’s youth team sits atop the National Youth League, undefeated in seven matches. Having won every game so far this year, their success is beginning to turn heads. Former Socceroo, and coach of Adelaide’s youth, Joe Mullen, describes Sydney as the benchmark of the National Youth League.
“In the opening third of the season they (Sydney FC) have been the benchmark and they have set a really good standard.”
Whilst another former Socceroo and youth coach of the Central Coast Mariners, Alex Tobin, echoed a similar view after his side’s defeat to the sky blues a few weeks ago.
“Credit to Sydney FC, they’re a very strong side and showed today why they’ve been so successful in this competition.”
The final comments from the trio of former Socceroo’s comes from Sydney FC’s very own youth assistant coach Steve Corica.
“There are some good boys there,” Corica said. “I’m sure a few of them will get their chance in the first team soon.”
Indeed, club Chairman Andrew Kemeny believes that the team has genuine star quality and that many of these players will be playing in the A-league after just one season at youth level.
“Next year, we’ll probably have the youngest (A-league) team of any in the league,” Kemeny said.
“We have some tremendous young talent in our youth team, and in Steve O’Connor, we have the best youth coach in Australia, if not in the Southern Hemisphere. This is our strategy for going forward.”
The “best youth coach in the Southern Hemisphere” Steve O’Conner was more cautious with his praise, however, outlining that there is still a long way to go.
“The boys have been playing some good football, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement and we’ve got to make sure we stay focused if we’re going to stay ahead of the competition,” O’Connor said.
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Here is the way the Roar expert panel sees all the action unfolding across the final weekend of play prior to the semi-finals.
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