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Sky Blues Support Football United

Since 2008 Sydney FC have enjoyed a prosperous relationship with Charity Partner Football United, and on Wednesday that partnership was cemented further with the presentation of a twelve thousand dollar cheque on behalf of Sky Blues Major Partner Beechwood Homes.

For every goal scored from round 23 until the finals series, Beechwood Homes committed $1,500 dollars to Football United and beyondblue, with 16 goals scored in six matches, and two of the 14/15 season’s goalscorers Alex Brosque and Matt Jurman were on hand to make the presentation.

“I think Beechwood Homes has done something fantastic in donating this cheque,” Sydney FC captain Alex Brosque said.

“Football United is such a great organisation they do so fantastic things for kids that come from other countries and look to football to unite them all.

“It’s very important, I think with all organisations like this that are about the kids. These sorts of donations help and definitely go a long way.”

Jurman and Brosque have been ambassadors of Football United since the partnerships’ inception and the Sky Blues defender praised the Charity Partner saying it was great to see the level of support it has received.

“It’s a great cause and I’m very proud to be able to score a goal and obviously help the kids in the long run which is very important,” Jurman said.

“It’s great to see that Beechwood Homes are helping out and give the kids something to look forward to.

“You can see now all the kids are playing soccer and that’s what brings them together, a lot of hardship they’ve gone through and at the end of the day football is what they enjoy and what they love and it’s great to see so many kids getting involved.”

Anne Bunde-Birouste, Founder and Director of Football United, thanked Beechwood Homes and Sydney FC for the support saying that the donation would go a long way in providing for the future of the program.

“It’s really hard to keep a program like this going,  we’re working in social change and one of the hardest things for us is survival financially and the engagement from Beechwood Homes in helping us do that is amazing,” she said.

“In 2008 we had a really nice partnership and over the years it’s been really growing exponentially, it’s not just about the money but it’s about the really sincere engagement from players and staff that’s on going and never failing and we’re fans.

“The future is more schools, keeping our programs going, enabling our youth leadership program to grow and getting more kids involved and actually running programs like this for other kids.”

Sydney FC are next in action in the South Coast Football Challenge on Friday 18 September at WIN Stadium, Wollongong. See the Sky Blues Westfield W-League squad face the Illawarra Stingrays in a curtain raiser (kick off 5:15pm) before the Hyundai A-League squad face Wellington Phoenix (kick off 7:30pm). Follow @SydneyFC on Twitter for match updates.

Sydney FC sign young defender Jacob Tratt

NEW Sydney FC recruit Jacob Tratt promises to be a rare asset for Graham Arnold — he’s a proven, goalscoring defender.

Last season the 20-year-old was Sutherland Sharks’ top scorer for the season with seven goals in the NSW NPL, as well as two in the FFA Cup.

Tratt also captained the Sydney FC youth team in 2014.

“It’s quite extraordinary really,” Tratt said.

“I didn’t think I’d finish the season with the golden boot, but I got lucky.”

It’s more than luck. The centre-back, who also plays at right-back, has already netted a goal for Sydney during a trial match and he’s hoping the trend continues into his first A-League season with the club.

“I’d love it to. If I can get some game time and score it would be unreal.”

While his ability in front of goal is a bonus, Tratt has been signed as a defender and Sky Blues coach Arnold is looking forward to monitoring his development.

“Jacob has the potential to go on and become an excellent defender,” Arnold said.

“He has a lot of strengths to his game and has shown us already this year he has the ability to be a part of our first team squad.”

Tratt is excited to be working under Arnold, a coach with a reputation for developing some of the A-League’s best young players.

“It’s an honour to be able to be coached by Graham,” Tratt said.

“As a player he will make me excel and if I keep listening to what him and the coaching staff have to say I’ll keep improving.

“There’s a good vibe at the club as well. The mixture of cultures is pretty exciting and if we can keep up the good vibes we should have a good season.”

Western Sydney Wanderers hopeful striker Mark Bridge isn’t badly injured after FFA Cup victory

WESTERN Sydney Wanderers are hopeful that their passage to the last eight of the FFA Cup has not come at the cost of a serious injury to striker Mark Bridge, despite his obvious discomfort during Tuesday’s 2-0 win over Palm Beach.

Bridge will remain with the Wanderers squad for a week’s camp on the Gold Coast and his condition monitored, but the groin injury he suffered early in the second half appears not to be as bad as feared.

Goals to Dimas Delgado and Brendan Hamill allowed Western Sydney to book a quarterfinal away to Perth, and Tony Popovic’s side were never seriously at risk of their QPL opponents repeating last year’s ignominious loss to Adelaide City in the same competition.

Speaking after the game, Popovic revealed his concern at losing a senior player little more than a month before the new season.

“The doctors are checking him as we speak. We’re hoping for a favourable result. But when a player goes off it’s always a concern,” said Popovic.

“It’s a little bit disappointing, that, to come out of this game. Apart from that it’s fantastic to go through. I never felt we were threatened through the night.”

A-League: Squad changes

Keep up to date with all the off-season A-League moves in one place.

As clubs look to strengthen, and some rebuild, you can find all the ins and outs right here.

ADELAIDE UNITED
IN: Eli Babalj (AZ Alkmaar - on loan), Mate Dugandzic (free), Iacopo La Rocca (Western Sydney Wanderers), George Mells (free)
OUT: Nigel Boogaard (Newcastle Jets), Paul Izzo (Central Coast Mariners), Awer Mabil (FC Midtjylland), Miguel Palanca (Numancia - end of loan)

BRISBANE ROAR
IN: Jamie Maclaren (Perth Glory)
OUT: Jesse Daley (released), Kofi Danning (Oakleigh Cannons), Lachlan Jackson (Newcastle Jets), Andrija Kaluderovic (released), George Lambadaridis (released), Ben Litfin (Palm Beach), Adam Sarota (FC Utrecht - end of loan)

CENTRAL COAST MARINERS
IN: Harry Ascroft (free), Mitch Austin (free), Paul Izzo (Adelaide United), Roy O'Donovan (free)
OUT: Zac Anderson (Sydney FC), Isaka Cernak (released), Brent Griffiths (released), John Hutchinson (retired), Travis Major (released), Hayden Morton (released), Dejan Pandurevic (released), Matt Simon (released), Tom Slater (released), Richard Vernes (Budapest Honved - end of loan)

MELBOURNE CITY
IN: Wade Dekker (City NYL), Bruno Fornaroli (free), Ivan Franjic (Torpedo Moscow), Corey Gameiro (Sydney FC),  Aaron Hughes (free), Steve Kuzmanovski (Western Sydney Wanderers), Harry Novillo (permanent deal), Thomas Sorensen (free) Michael Zullo (free)
OUT: Damien Duff (released), Mate Dugandzic (released), Jason Hoffman (Newcastle Jets), Kew Jaliens (released), Josh Kennedy (retired), Massimo Murdocca (released), Iain Ramsay (released), Andrew Redmayne (Western Sydney Wanderers), Rob Wielaert (released)

MELBOURNE VICTORY
IN: Danny Vukovic (Perth Glory)
OUT: Jordan Brown (released), Nathan Coe (released), Mark Milligan (Bani Yas), Andrew Nabbout (released)

NEWCASTLE JETS
IN: Mark Birighitti (Varese - end of loan), Nigel Boogaard (Adelaide United), Andy Brennan (South Melbourne), Labinot Haliti (Western Sydney Wanderers), Jason Hoffman (Melbourne City), Lachlan Jackson (Brisbane Roar), Themba Muata-Marlow (Sydney FC) Mateo Poljak (Western Sydney Wanderers), Leonardo Vitor Santiago (free), Cameron Watson (free)
OUT: Zenon Caravella (released), Travis Cooper (Adamstown Rosebud), Sam Gallagher (released), Andrew Hoole (Sydney FC), Edson Montano (Barcelona SC - end of loan), Scott Neville (Western Sydney Wanderers), Jacob Pepper (Western Sydney Wanderers), Taylor Regan (released), John Solari (released), Jess Vanstrattan (retired), James Virgili (released), Allan Welsh (released)

PERTH GLORY
IN: Ante Covic (Western Sydney Wanderers), Guyon Fernandez (free), Diego Castro Gimenez - international marquee (free), Hagi Gligor (Sydney FC), Antony Golec (Western Sydney Wanderers), Alex Grant (free), Gyorgy Sandor (free), Jerrad Tyson (Sun Pegasus), Marc Warren (free)
OUT: Jack Duncan (Randers FC), Daniel De Silva (Roma), Rostyn Griffiths (released), Youssouf Hersi (released), Scott Jamieson (Western Sydney Wanderers), Andy Keogh (released), Jamie Maclaren (Brisbane Roar), Brandon O'Neill (Sydney FC), Danny Vukovic (Melbourne Victory), Riley Woodcock (Sydney FC)

SYDNEY FC
IN: Zac Anderson (Central Coast Mariners), Filip Holosko - international marquee (free), Andrew Hoole (Newcastle Jets), Ivan Necevski (free), Milos Ninkovic (free), Brandon O'Neill (Perth Glory), Matt Simon (free), Riley Woodcock (Perth Glory)
OUT: Terry Antonis (PAOK FC), Nick Carle (released), Corey Gameiro (released), Hagi Gligor (Perth Glory), Bernie Ibini (Shanghai SIPG - end of loan), Marc Janko (released), Ivan Necevski (released), Sasa Ognenovski (released), Nikola Petkovic (KVC Westerlo), Peter Triantis (released)

WELLINGTON PHOENIX
IN: Blake Powell (APIA Leichhardt), Jeffrey Sarpong (free)
OUT: Michael Boxall (SuperSport United), Tyler Boyd (Vitoria Guimaraes), Nathan Burns (FC Tokyo), Josh Brindell-South (released), Kenny Cunningham (released), Joel Griffiths (released), Jason Hicks (released)

WESTERN SYDNEY WANDERERS
IN: Alberto Aguilar (free), Dimas Delgado (free), Scott Jamieson (Perth Glory), Andreu Guerao Mayoral (Racing Santander), Scott Neville (Newcastle Jets), Mitch Nichols (Cerezo Osaka), Jacob Pepper (Newcastle Jets), Federico Piovaccari - international marquee (free), Andrew Redmayne (Melbourne City)
OUT: Kerem Bulut (released), Ante Covic (released), Antony Golec (Perth Glory), Labinot Haliti (released), Tomi Juric (released), Nick Kalmar (released), Steve Kuzmanovski (Melbourne City), Iacopo La Rocca (Adelaide United), Adrian Madaschi (released), Yianni Perkatis (released), Mateo Poljak (released), Nikita Rukavytsya (released), Matthew Spiranovic (Hangzhou Greentown), Yojiro Takahagi (FC Seoul), Yusuke Tanaka (released), Jason Trifiro (released), Nick Ward (released)

A-League: Pre-season

How has your club been faring in pre-season? Who has starred? All the results and goals are right here…

Adelaide United
May 29: 2-3 v Villarreal in Adelaide (Goodwin, Marrone)
July 15: 0-2 v Manchester City on the Gold Coast
July 20: 0-2 v Liverpool in Adelaide
July 28: 5-0 v Adelaide Blue Eagles in Adelaide (Carrusca x2, Djite, Sanchez x2)
August 19: 11-0 v Alice Springs All Stars in Alice Springs (Smith x2, Sanchez x2, Babalj x2, Cirio x3, Carrusca x2)
August 22: 4-3 v Melbourne City in Darwin (Sanchez, Dugandzic, Jeggo, Goodwin)
Sept 10: v Adelaide Comets in Adelaide
P: 6, W: 3, D: 0, L: 3, F: 7, A: 7

Brisbane Roar
June 3: 3-0 v Villarreal in Brisbane (Clut x2, Solorzano)
July 17: 1-2 Liverpool in Brisbane (Petratos)
Aug 19: 0-1 Melbourne Victory on the Gold Coast
Aug 30: 10-0 Gold Coast All Stars, Southport (Maclaren x8, Borello, Yango)
Sept 12: Newcastle Jets, Southport
Sept 19: v PS4 NPLQLD U23 All-Stars in Brisbane
Sept 26: v Central Coast Mariners at Sunshine Coast Stadium
P: 4, W: 2, D: 0, L: 2, F: 4, A: 2

Central Coast Mariners
August 7: 3-2 Western Sydney Wanderers in Coffs Harbour
August 18: 3-2 Canberra Olympic in ACT (Austin, Sim, Bentham - trialist)
August 20: 3-1 v Gungahlin United in ACT (O'Donovan x2, Bingham)
Sept 20: v Newcastle Jets at Wade Park, Orange
Sept 26: v Brisbane Roar at Sunshine Coast Stadium
P: 3, W: 3, D: 0, L: 0, F: 3, A: 2

Melbourne City
July 18: 0-1 Manchester City on the Gold Coast
Aug 16: 1-1 v Newcastle Jets - behind closed doors (Mooy)
August 22: 3-4 v Adelaide United in Darwin (Espindola, Germano, Mauk)
P: 3, W: 0, D: 1, L: 2, F: 0, A: 1

Melbourne Victory
August 19: 1-0 v Brisbane Roar on the Gold Coast (Geria)
August 25: 4-0 v Port Melbourne, JL Murphy Reserve, Melbourne (Pain x2, Ben Khalfallah x2)
P: 2, W: 2, D: 0, L: 0, F: 0, A: 0

Newcastle Jets
Aug 16: 1-1 Melbourne City - behind closed doors (Haliti)
Aug 19: 1-0 v Bentleigh Greens, Kingston Heath Soccer Complex (Poljak pen)
Sept 12: v Brisbane Roar,Southport
Sept 20: v Central Coast Mariners at Wade Park, Orange
P: 2, W: 1, D: 1, L: 0, F: 0, A: 0

Perth Glory
July 22: 1-0 v Cockburn City in Perth (Garcia)
July 28: 4-0 v Inglewood United in Spearwood (Oxborrow, Harold, Valentini v2)
Aug 19: 1-0 v WA State Team (Marinkovic)
P: 3, W: 3, D: 0, L: 0, F: 5, A: 0

Sydney FC
July 22: 7-0 v Earlwood Wanderers FC in Lilyfield (Smeltz pen +1, Calver, Mullen, Lokoli-Ngoy, Naumoff x2)
July 30: 5-1 v Macarthur Rams in Campbelltown (Simon, Naumoff, Antonis, Burgess, Lokoli-Ngoy)
August 13: v Gold Coast All Stars (Gold Coast Cabs Challenge) CANCELLED.
August 19: 3-0 v Belconnen United (Simon, Tratt, Hoole)
Sept 18: v Wellington Phoenix, WIN Stadium, Wollongong
P: 3, W: 3, D: 0, L: 0, F: 7, A: 0

Wellington Phoenix
June 27: 2-1 v Fiji in Suva (Bonevacia, Doyle)
June 30: 2-2 v Fiji in Ba (Gulley, Appiah)
July 13: 4-1 v Stop Out in Lower Hutt (Krishna x3, McGlinchey)
July 21: 3-3 v Petone in Petone (McGarry, Bonevacia, Rogerson)
July 22: 3-0 v Miramar in Wellington ((Appiah x2, Cahill-Fleury)
July 28: 2-3 v Wests at Ole Football Academy
August 23: 1-2 v New Zealand A in New Plymouth (Krishna)
Sept 18: v Sydney FC, WIN Stadium, Wollongong
P: 7, W: 3, D: 2, L: 2, F: 16, A: 10

Western Sydney Wanderers
July 30: 3-0 Mt Druitt Town Rangers in Emerton (Bridge, Castelen, Ly)
August 7: 2-3 v Central Coast Mariners in Coffs Harbour
August 25: 3-0 v Canberra FC at Deakin Stadium, ACT (Bridge, Piovaccari, Santalab)
P: 3, W: 2, D: 0, L: 1, F: 4, A: 3

Muscat predicts FFA Cup QF thriller

Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat is predicting an entertaining FFA Cup clash against Adelaide United after the two fierce rivals were drawn against each other in the Cup quarter finals.

Victory narrowly booked their spot in the last eight with a pulsating 3-2 win over a plucky Rockdale City Suns at Jubilee Oval on Tuesday night.

FFA Cup wrap

Young midfielder Jesse Makarounas made the most of a rare start with a goal in each half, with Besart Berisha grabbing the other.

The Victory boss then watched the live draw on Fox Sports just after full-time as his side were given a home tie against the FFA Cup's defending champions.

FFA Cup QF draw revealed

“It wasn’t great tonight but we look forward,” Muscat told Fox Sports post-match. “Adelaide possesses a good game for us.

“We’ve got them in the first game of the ( A-League] season, we’ll get a good luck at them and I suppose they’ll get a good look at us.

“It should be an entertaining game and a little bit different now that both teams have something to lose.

“There was only one team that had something to lose tonight and I thought we just hung on," he added. 

Gallery: FFA Cup action

Victory were forced to work hard for their win against the PS4 NPL NSW outfit, who took the game to the A-League champions.

It looked like being a comfortable night for the visitors when Berisha made it 2-0 early in the second half but the Suns roared back with Marko Jesic converting a penalty soon after.

Makarounas then curled in a screamer before Rockdale responded again, halving the deficit four minutes from time via a Leigh Broxham own goal.

It led to a frantic finish as Victory were forced to defend a series of corners and set-pieces but they held firm to avoid a potential boilover.

“We are pleased that we are through another round but not with our performance,” striker Besart Berisha said.

“I thought in the beginning we didn’t keep the ball and penetrate. We lost a lot of balls which we could have kept and have more possession.

“We can play much better. But full credit to Rockdale, they played really good and respect for their performance."