Adelaide United Youth are preparing for another challenge, against Adelaide Comets in Round 2 of the PlayStation 4 National Premier Leagues 2017 season at SA Athletics Stadium on Friday night.
Head Coach, Huss Skenderovic and the Young Reds will be anticipating a tough outing on Friday night, after falling to Adelaide Olympic at the weekend, unable to kick-start their National Premier Leagues campaign with three points.
Adelaide United Youth crossed paths with the Comets in Round 8 last season, in a catastrophic 0-3 defeat, and again in Round 19 where the Reds just fell short, 1-2.
Last weekend, Adelaide were downed 0-3 by visitors to The Parks Football Centre, Olympic, while the Mile End outfit played out an inspiring 3-1 triumph over the returning Para Hills Knights at the Paddocks on Saturday.
Skenderovic claimed that his side were disappointed with the result to open their season, but remain in high spirits to move forward to the next challenge.
“It was a disappointing result against Adelaide Olympic, and the way we failed to penetrate at the right times,” Skenderovic said. “Analysing the game, we found that we did have a lot of possession but we were ineffective with it and in our front-third play, and we were indecisive in a lot of areas.
“We trained during the week, and there is a lot of spirit within the playing group, and they want to bounce back and put the loss behind them and focus on Adelaide Comets.
“It was a very physical game, which didn’t have much fluency to it, and was more of a battle which I believe suited Olympic more.”
The Adelaide United Youth Boss also revealed his Reds now know exactly what to expect out of the league, coming out of the battle on Saturday night, and will have to work on their defensive structure to compete with the other Clubs.
“But we are prepared for what to expect this year with the National Premier Leagues, and it is different to the National Youth League where our first game last weekend proved, especially the nature and physicality of it.
“It is something that will take us a bit of time with, to adapt and get used to the physicality and dealing with the circumstances that we will face.
“We’ll need to be more defensively resolute, more organised and structured, so we’ll need to pay more attention to detail and remain “switched-on”, because anything can happen at this level of football.
“If you give a good team good opportunities, they will score goals, so working hard defensively is very important.”
In facing his former Club, striker Apostolos Stamatelopoulos insisted he was excited to catch up with old friends, but the three points is the focus come Friday night.
“I’m definitely very excited to play against my former team and also catch up with some old mates, but obviously the most important thing for me, and Adelaide United, is the three points.
“I’m very keen and can’t wait to get out there on Friday night.”
