The Adelaide United Youth Team host the Perth Glory Youth Team in their last home game of the Foxtel National Youth League 2014/15 season.
With the NPL kicking off mid-week for the Young Reds, it’s been a battle of being able to keep players mentally and physically ready.
“I think it’s a new learning curve for them, and I think even for us, the staff, that we’re competing in two competitions and we’re trying to get our strongest line-up out for each game, said Adelaide United Youth Coach Michael Valkanis.
“But at the same time taking care that the players are physically up for it and mentally ready for it.”
The Young Reds competed in their first NPL match on Wednesday night defeating the Adelaide Hills Hawks 4-0.
Despite the young body’s being rested longer throughout the week due to more game time, Valkanis saw the win as a good confidence booster for the team, after back to back losses.
“It was a strong game, we did quite well, but now we’ve got an important game now in the NYL which is against one of the best teams in the competition.
“It’d be nice to turn the result around again, I think we got a bit of a confidence booster from the mid-week game in the new competition winning 4-0.”
“Even though this is a totally different game, a totally different competition, sometimes the mental side helps in getting a bit of confidence from that game.”
Valkanis believes that the past couple results hasn’t been a true reflection of how the team has performed, saying it was just a few crucial moments that lost both games.
“On the past two games I think we’ve slipped up because we probably haven’t been able to be consistent enough over the whole 90 minutes. And that’s what we were doing earlier on in the season.
“But we saw over the past two games we have lost the games, not that the opponents have beaten us.
“The Newcastle game I thought that we were very good, and we deserved to win. Total dominance. And we created a lot of chances but we didn’t score.
“I think in the last game against the Central Coast it wasn’t complete dominance but we made two mistakes which cost us two goals.”
And with players dropping their guard for just a couple of seconds, it seems that complete focus is the key to success this weekend.
“We just have to focus again on the way we play.
“Refocus on our playing style and make sure we’re up for it against a very good team in Peth Glory.”
Adelaide United Youth Team will host Perth Glory Youth Team this Sunday morning at the Adelaide Shores Football Centre. Kick-off 9:30am. Free entry.
