Aston Villa U18s down Coventry City U18s in FA Youth Cup third round

Aston Villa U18s downed Coventry City’s youth counterparts in the FA Youth Cup third round. The fourth round sees the claret and blue’s famed academy take on Bury.

It has been a quiet week for Aston Villa on the transfer front. Other than usual recycled rumors of veteran strikers, not much progress has been made, at least publicly. But hey! Aston Villa U18s played a match on Wednesday, and they won!

The FA Youth Cup third round kicked off this week. Aston Villa drew Coventry City at home, ultimately dispatching the Sky Blues 2-1 through winger Colin Odutayo’s brace.

As a nice gesture, the good folks in the Aston Villa video department streamed the whole match live on YouTube:

Aston Villa U18s trotted out the following lineup:

There were some interesting names involved. Dimitri Sea, signed in the summer at age 16, has two goals and two assists from five appearances in U18 Premier League action. He led the line for Villa on the afternoon. Another name that pops out, at least in American soccer circles, is midfielder Indiana Vassilev.

Vassilev, 16, is a veteran of the United States squad that made a quarterfinal run in the FIFA U-17 World back in October. The U.S. eventually fell to champions England by a 4-1 scoreline. Apparently, Vassilev has been training in the Villa academy for the past month. He was substituted off in the 60th-minute for Mason Birch.

Anyway, for the Villa youth side, they let Coventry score in the first minute off a slightly fluky deflection, and eventual breakdown in central defense. Colin Odutayo scored his first goal of the match seven minutes after to equalize. The left winger scored the winner late in the second-half.

As a reward, the claret and blue face Bury in the next round. All ties to be played on January 20, 2018. You can find the full fixture list here.