Western United FC have unveiled their players’ kit numbers for their inaugural Hyundai A-League season and ahead of their first match as a football club.
United will take on NPL Victoria side Caroline Springs George Cross FC in a pre-season friendly on Thursday night – and now fans know which number each player will be wearing on their back.
International imports Panagiotis Kone and Alessandro Diamanti will don the no.8 and no.23 jerseys respectively, while former Caltex Socceroo Scott McDonald has claimed the no.10 shirt.
While the friendly game – from 7pm AEST at City Vista Pavilion and Sports Field – will provide fans with their first look at what Western United FC can produce on the field, coach Mark Rudan isn’t overly concerned with result.
“It’s fantastic – that the day’s come around,” said Rudan.
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Squad numbers are in. pic.twitter.com/TWdK2mLgcK
— Western United FC (@wufcofficial) August 17, 2019
“I’ve never put an emphasis on the result. It’s not really the most important thing; particularly at this stage of the season. It’s about characteristics and the things we’ve been working on; principles of play and making sure they come out in the game.
“But for the players, they’re going to love walking out in an official capacity and playing an 11v11 game because it’s a historic moment for the football club as well… We can always turn around and say, ‘we were there for that”’.
“I’ll always remember as a Sydney FC player, we played Manly at Cromer Park [in the Sky Blues’ first match]. To this day it’s still spoken about so it’s a big moment in the club’s history… I think it will be spoken for years to come.”
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🗣 “It’s a big moment in the club’s history.”
Join us this Thursday for our first ever game, against @georgecrossfc ⚽️ #AreYouWithUs pic.twitter.com/wtHRfn29q4
— Western United FC (@wufcofficial) August 18, 2019
It’s now been a month since Western United’s first-ever training session, but the club still has another two months to prepare themselves for the beginning of the Hyundai A-League season.
Their first test will come against Rudan’s former club, Wellington Phoenix, but the first task at hand is putting in a strong showing against Carolina Springs George Cross FC.
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To avoid any potential clashes with an FFA Cup 2019 Round of 16 match in Melbourne, we have rescheduled our first friendly match against @georgecrossfc from Wednesday 21 August to Thursday 22 August (kick-off 7:00pm) at City Vista.
We’ll see you there! ⚽️ pic.twitter.com/mljAql2EpV
— Western United FC (@wufcofficial) August 5, 2019
The Fixtures are in.
Which one will you be with us for?#AreYouWithUs #ALeague pic.twitter.com/jqr2E7HLoI— Western United FC (@wufcofficial) August 9, 2019
