Sydney United
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| Full name | Sydney United 58 Football Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | United, Croatia, Croacija |
| Founded | 1958 |
| Ground | Sydney United Sports Centre |
| Capacity | 12,000 |
| Manager | Davor Bajsic |
| League | NPL NSW |
| 2016 | 1st |
| Website | Club home page |
Sydney United 58 Football Club is a semi-professional association football club based in Edensor Park, Sydney, New South Wales Australia. The club was formed as Sydney Croatia in 1958, by Croatian Australians in the area, but it was renamed in 1993 as Sydney United after having the name Sydney CSC for a season.
The club currently competes in the National Premier Leagues New South Wales, hosting matches at the Sydney United Sports Centre in Edensor Park. United are a sister club to Melbourne Knights, a Croatian club in the NPL Victoria.
The club is a regular participant in the Australian-Croatian Soccer Tournament.
Formed in 1958 as a sports club, the Sydney United Football Club played its first season in 1958 (undefeated) in the old NSW Soccer Football Association (NSWSFA). After transferring to the NSW Soccer Federation (a breakaway league established in 1959), they competed in the third division. In 1961 they were promoted to the second division and in 1963 to first, where they were amongst the elite teams nationwide. Teams like St. George Budapest, Pan-Hellenic (who later become Sydney Olympic), APIA-Leichhardt, Yugal and Hakoah were United's major rivals.
For the seasons of 1964 and 1965 a part of the name changed (from Croatia to Metropolitan Adriatic), reverting to Croatia in 1966. However, this was not the last name change; the NSWSF ordered Croatia and Yugal in 1968 to anglicise their names after several incidents of crowd violence. Croatia changed their name again to South Sydney Croatia, since they resided in the South Sydney area with the local Croatian club at Surry Hills.
After a few lean seasons during the late 1960s and early 1970s, United won their first NSW Premiership in 1977 with Luka Fabijinic as coach and Atti Aboyni as the team's striker. The team beat Auburn 2–0 in front of a crowd of more than 6,500 at the Sydney Sports Ground. In 1978, Aboyni took over as captain and coach of the team. Croatia amassed 62 regular-season goals (Aboyni scoring 21 of them) and winning the minor premiership for the first time; they lost 2–1 to Sutherland in the grand final replay (the first game was a 1–1 draw) in front of 9,700 fans. Aboyni then coached again in 1979 to another minor premiership, before quitting after Croatia lost 0–2 to Sutherland in the preliminary final.
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