Raiders Soccer Club juniors one step away from European powerhouses

Raiders Soccer Club junior players Jackson Walls, Elliot Sims and Jackson Jukic. Source: News Limited

A GROUP of soccer players from Adelaide's inner northern suburbs will aim to prove that team spirit can overcome even the biggest obstacles when they embark on a David-versus-Goliath journey in coming months.

Raiders Soccer Club's under-12 team has qualified for the finals of the Volkswagon Junior Masters Australia in Sydney this October, where they will take on 20 of Australia's biggest junior clubs.

If successful, the boys will qualify to play in the world finals of the event in Italy next year, where they could take on the academies of the soccer giants like Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.

The team qualified to represent SA in the national finals after beating other local hopefuls in wet conditions during a qualification event last winter.

A focus on team play has also put the group on track to win the league-cup double of its local competition.

"The boys have been playing together now for a few years,''

says Anton Jukic, who has been their coach throughout that time.

"They are all very well versed in passing and technique and they have a really good understanding of each other."

The odds will be stacked against Raiders when they head to the national finals, but Jukic says the team would take inspiration from Perth's ECU Joondalup - Australia's representative in the 2011 Volkswagon Junior World Masters.

"They were a small team from WA, but they got all the way to the finals and then they got out of their group," he says.

"It shows that anything is possible if you work hard as a team and stick to your game plan."