Sydney FC Foxtel National Youth League Head Coach Robert Stanton believes the players’ hard work has paid dividends as they prepare to face Adelaide United in the Grand Final at Central Coast Stadium on Saturday 23 January (kick off 4pm).
Stanton said his squad are deserving of their place in the final as he predicted a great contest against unfamiliar opposition in Conference A winners Adelaide United.
“I’m very happy for us to be there, I think the players deserve it,” Stanton said.
“They’ve worked very hard, we won six out of eight and I think overall we’ve been building to playing a certain way and I think we’ve been rewarded and deservedly so.
“We’ve got access to their [Adelaide’s] games so we’ll watch and do our homework and I’m sure they’ve done the same,” he continued.
“We’ll go through and look at their strengths and weaknesses, their style and how they play and we’ll try and find areas where we can gain benefit.
“Having a general look at the way they play and the way we play it’s going to be an interesting comp. I think it will be a really good game in terms of football and I think both teams will go out and try and play a real high entertaining game of football.”
While making the final is an achievement in itself, Stanton said he’d laid down key goals for his first foray into the Foxtel National Youth League apart from reaching the showpiece event, although he said he’d be more than pleased to take home the silverware at the end of the match.
“My goal was to establish a style, establish some key areas and a relationship with the key stuff that the first team do in terms of defending and attacking principles,” he said.
“There’s some variations in our formations but the key principles that we wanted from the first grade are there and the bonus is that they’ve been working well and we’ve been rewarded for that.
“Every time we play we go out to win and also to improve and I think we’ve done that and got better each week as well.
“You play and prepare to win things and for me it would be nice [to win the final],” he continued.
“For the players it’s their moment and I’ll be more pleased for them if we win it. For me I take it as part of the job, it’s nice but at the end of the day I hope it’s a good day and the players learn from it, get the experience and they can use that to be better, I think that’ll be the big reward for us.”
Sydney FC will contest the Foxtel National Youth League Grand Final at Central Coast Stadium against Adelaide United on Saturday 23 January (kick off 4pm). Catch the game live on Fox Sports 4 or follow @SydneyFC on Twitter for updates.
