Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat says he is excited about the youth in his squad after they helped upstage Atletico Madrid 1-0 in a friendly in Geelong on Sunday.
Victory will now turn their attention to their third match in 11 days when take on the Newcastle Jets in the FFA Cup on Wednesday.
The Big V will head to Broadmeadow to begin their Cup defence full of confidence after a strong pre-season start by their youngsters, including Christian Theoharous, Josh Hope Seb Pasquali and Stefan Nigro.
“It’s a massive compliment to our youth program, we saw another three come on today,” Muscat said after the Atletico clash.
“We’ve provided…the opportunity over the two games. I think they’ve taken that opportunity and sent a buzz of excitement.
“Young Christian and Seb were getting the ball – you can sense people were getting excited and I’ve got to say so was I.”
Victory have now collected two major scalps in short succession, first knocking off Juventus in a penalty shootout to kick-off the International Champions Cup.
Muscat’s men looked sharp in both games and the coach took confidence away from the performances ahead of the FFA Cup fixture.
He said he wanted to instil a winning mentality in the squad and rubbished the idea of the Jets clash having more importance than the past two games.
“I want to win both, it’s so early in the season, but the reality is we had a good run in the competition last season,” he said.
“It’s a challenge that’s laid down to us now and we’ll go across to Newcastle and get some recovery for the players and pick a team accordingly to try and retain the trophy.”
He added: “What our club has done over the 11 years, to perform the way we have is encouraging, it’s set a certain standard. Just from today I’ve seen some good progress today from many areas of the game.”
Related Articles

Victory poised to pick up Jets discard Piscopo

Mariners to embrace grand final home comforts: Vukovic
.jpeg&h=172&w=306&c=1&s=1)