Adelaide United FC is excited to announce its two squads which will compete for the first time in the PlayStation 4 National Premier League (NPL) competitions in 2015.
Adelaide United will compete in the NPL State League and will feature a senior team consisting of players currently competing in the Foxtel National Youth League, as well as an Under 20’s team.
The Club’s entry into the National Premier League competitions enables its players to partake in an ongoing program assisting in the development of footballers.
Adelaide United’s primary focus for its Football Program is to develop its players to become future Hyundai A-League players. With Adelaide United having two teams in the NPL, including a Foxtel National Youth League Team, it allows consistent learning for players throughout a 12 month basis and gives the players the opportunity to be trained, nurtured and taught the Adelaide United philosophy.
Coach of The Adelaide United Youth Team Michael Valkanis said that there is excitement around the club, as this is the first time an Adelaide United Squad will be competing in the local league.
“It’s exciting times for the young players being part of an inaugural squad. This will enhance our young player’s development allowing them to play over 50 games a year by playing in both the Foxtel National Youth League, PlayStation 4 National Premier League and participating in various international tournaments”.
“We have seen how good it has been for youth teams such as Brisbane and Perth who from last year have had their teams participating in their respective state NPL competitions. They have had strong starts in the NYL and have improved a lot since last year”.
“What’s great now about our program is the boys will play in two different environments and having to deal with different variables such as tactics and physical side. In the Foxtel National Youth League the boys play against their peers and presumably the best players from the state that they are from, games are high intensity and tactically different every week as youth teams follow the senior team models”.
“In the NPL they will be playing against men. The physical component will be an advantage to other teams and judging by our friendlies with local teams we have to find different tactical solutions against the local sides as compared to the NYL teams”.
With the NPL starting for the Reds Youth in one weeks’ time, Coach Michael Valkanis believes that they will focus on their own particular style, which has seen the Youth Team play some exciting football throughout the Foxtel National Youth league season so far.
“We, no matter what, will focus on our style, maintaining possession and dominating through possession to create scoring opportunities. We will have an attacking outlook even in defence phase looking to press and get the ball back quickly. To us the ball is everything, it is the most important and we want to have control of it”.
“It’s about training in the one environment and hearing consistent messages that will improve our young players and give them every opportunity to make the next step. Remaining in our environment full time and consistently learning and working with our clubs methodology will help them learn our style and philosophy”.
The Adelaide United Youth Teams also will be wearing a navy blue kit throughout the 2015 National Premier League season. The navy blue kit will feature navy blue shorts and socks in contrast to the Foxtel National Youth League’s all red attire.
“Navy blue along with red and yellow is one of the primary colours of the club and it will give the NPL squad a point of difference to our Foxtel National Youth League and Hyundai A-League teams”, said Adelaide United Chief Executive Michael Petrillo.
“More importantly we finally have the ability to provide a year round program to the best young players in the South Australia. Not only will we be able to provide a clearer pathway to our Youth and Hyundai A-League teams but many of these players will also end up playing for other clubs within the NPL which can only assist to drive the quality of the NPL upwards by having players involved in a full time development program for up to seven years if they start with the current FFSA SAP Program.”
Adelaide United kick-off their NPL State League Season against Adelaide Hawks on Wednesday 18 February 2015 at the Hawks Nest. Kick-off at 7:00pm.
Adelaide United FC 2015 NPL State League Squad: Samed Altundag, Niko Apostolopoulos, Joel De Donatis, Jordan Elliott, Zack Gomez, Michael Gravas, Kristin Konstandopoulos, Nathan Konstandopoulos, Connor Lacey, Thomas Love, Clifford Maina, Alec Maiolo, Daniel Margush, Riley McGree, Guy Miller, Angus Mitchell, Yiannis Nestoras, Mark Ochieng, Adam Piscioneri, Nicholas Polli, Doni Pollock, Jordan Pudler, David Signore, Dylan Smith, Thomas Stokes, Ruon Tongyik, Antoni Trimboli, Ben Warland, Alex Woodlands, Oliver Zafiridis
