Sydney FC legend Steve Corica will join Vitezslav Lavicka and Michal Zach as an assistant coach for the Sky Blues upcoming 2011 AFC Champions League campaign, the club announced today.
Sydney FC legend Steve Corica will join Vitezslav Lavicka and Michal Zach as an assistant coach for the Sky Blues upcoming 2011 AFC Champions League campaign, the club announced today.
The current Sydney FC National Youth League coach and two-time championship winner will be pitch side for all six Group Stage fixtures as well as assist Lavicka in fulltime A-League team training.
Corica-s NYL assistant and former A-League assistant coach Ian Crook will also take up an assistant coaching role for the AFC Champions League matches but will not travel to away matches.
Crook, who boasts extensive coaching experience throughout the world, is himself a fan favourite at Sydney FC having been assistant coach when the Sky Blues won the inaugural Hyundai A-League Championship in 2005/06.
Sydney FC-s AFC Champions League campaign gets underway in five days when they host Korea-s Suwon Samsung Bluewings at the Sydney Football Stadium on Wednesday 2 March (8pm kick-off).
The Sky Blues downed New South Wales Premier League club Sydney United 1-0 at Edensor Park on Wednesday night – their final warm up match – with youngster Joel Chianese scoring an excellent goal in the second half.
“This is a great opportunity for me and I look forward to working with Vitezslav, Michal and Steve and of course the boys and contributing as much as I can,” Corica said. “The club has given me a fantastic chance to learn and further develop my coaching skills in what is very prestigious tournament.”
“I know Asian football well as I played in Japan for a number of years and I also played in our first Champions League campaign in 2007 so I will be able to use that knowledge to help the team.”
Corica and Crook completed their first season at the helm of the Youth League team with a 4-1 rout of Melbourne Victory last weekend. The young side collected nine wins to go with three draws and eight losses and look to set finish a handy fourth on the table.
“Hopefully I can pass my knowledge of Asian football on to benefit the team and individual players. It is growing tournament and a very important one for the club so being involved is great,” Crook said.
Zach will also remain at Sydney FC until the conclusion of the tournament-s group stage.
