Guillermo Amor has urged the people of Adelaide to give the Reds one last push in next weekend’s Hyundai A-League Grand Final as the club aims to secure their first championship.
The Reds stormed into the May 1 decider on Friday night with an emphatic 4-1 win over Melbourne City at a rocking Coopers Stadium.
A brace to Bruce Djite and late goals to defender Dylan McGowan and substitute Pablo Sanchez sent the Reds through to their first grand final in seven years and their third in total.
But Amor stressed the job was not done yet, calling on all of Adelaide to get behind the squad as they strive for an historic title.
“I feel fantastic. It’s a great day for us, for the team, for Adelaide and for me it’s very important in my first year as coach,” the Spanish coach beamed at full time.
“It’s important to enjoy this moment but to think that it’s ‘one more game’. It’s a good moment for the group, for the players, for the club, for Adelaide.
“The next week we play in the final here. It’s important the people come and push for Adelaide.
“We need the stadium behind us. Here [Coopers Stadium] is small, the other one [Adelaide Oval] is bigger, we need the support.”
They certainly got the support against City as more than 15,000 crammed in to watch a dominant display.
The Reds bossed it from the early minutes and created a number of chances in the first half but each time found City gloveman Thomas Sorensen too hard to beat.
But as soon as Djite scored three minutes after the resumption – with a curling 25-yard howitzer – there was only going to be one winner.
“We were fantastic. The first half it was 0-0 but we deserved a few goals. We played very well, we were focused on the game, we attacked, we pressed and we were strong,” Amor said.
“In defence we were fantastic too, [Iacopo] La Rocca on [Bruno] Fornaroli in the middle…was very good.
“The second half we controlled the first minutes [and] got our goals. At 2-1 we were a little nervous but the third goal we recovered and could enjoy the last minutes.”
Adelaide now awaits the winner of Sunday’s second semi between Western Sydney Wanderers and Brisbane Roar.
Amor insists he doesn’t care which side they meet in the decider and says he’ll watch the game from home feeling “calm”.
Whoever gets through will have a connection with the Amor and South Australia.
The Wanderers have three Spanish players – Dimas, Alberto and Andreu – as well as assistant coach Andres Carrasco, while Brisbane is coached by two of Adelaide’s favourite sons in John and Ross Aloisi and also have former La Liga midfielder Corona in their ranks.
