As the countdown to the ACL Quarter Finals continues, Coach John Kosmina knows the value of facing Brisbane Roar in a trial tomorrow night at Hindmarsh Stadium.
As the countdown to the AFC Champions League Quarter Finals continues, Adelaide United FC Coach John Kosmina knows the value of facing two of the Hyundai A-League-s leading on field clubs in the lead in, starting with a pre season trial match against Brisbane Roar tomorrow night at Hindmarsh Stadium.
Less than two weeks out from the September 19 1st Leg showdown with Bunyodkor, the Reds face the reigning Hyundai A-League champions and then the 2011/12 Premiers, Central Coast Mariners, next Wednesday in their final two hit outs.
While all of the Hyundai A-League clubs are still fine tuning ahead of the start of the season proper, Kosmina sees the opportunity to face the Roar and the Mariners, Australia-s other two participants in the 2012 ACL, as the ideal lead in.
“It will be a good test, especially because we-ve trained fairly hard and lengthy for the last two days,” Kosina said of the game against the Roar.
“They (the players) have clocked up a lot of kilometres in the previous weeks, but we-ve built some intensity up. You look at it as a game, we want to get things right, but it-s also the training session that we-d have on a Friday anyway.”
Other than Jake Barker-Daish and Paul Izzo who are both on international duty with the Young Socceroos, only Zenon Caravella and Marcelo Carrusca are unavailable for the match with the Roar.
The Reds- 2011/12 Club Champion is progressing well from a niggling hip problem, while Argentine midfielder Carrusca continues to recover from a calf injury.
Last Saturday-s 4-2 victory over an albeit under strength Sydney FC showed Kosmina that the Reds are making positive inroads, and he will be eager to see more encouraging signs against a talented Roar team bolstered by the return of Thomas Broich, Mitch Nichols and Do Dong-Hyun.
“I was really happy with our performance against Sydney FC last weekend. They were a little bit undermanned but from our perspective, it was a really professional and controlled exercise…the application was great.”
While the Reds have scored six goals in their past two trials, they have also conceded six, but Kosmina is not overly concerned with how his team is tracking defensively.
“All we need to do now is fix up those mistakes that we made to concede those goals. It has got better and better. We-ve worked on a fair bit the last few weeks and you get that little incremental improvement every training session and then we-ve got a couple of more games against good opposition and I think we mightn-t be too far off the mark.”
Notably, Adelaide United has conceded just two goals on its way to the ACL Quarter Finals, giving it one of the best defensive records in this year-s competition.
Trying to keep out the A-League-s best attacking team of last season at Hindmarsh tomorrow night will certainly serve as sound preparation for September 19.
Kick-Off for tomorrow night-s game is at 7.30pm and tickets are available through Ticketek or at the Holden Street gate from 6.30pm on match day. Tickets prices are just $10 for adults, $5 concession, while kids aged 15 & under and AUFC 2012/13 Financial & Premium Members receive FREE entry (members must collect their tickets from the Adelaide United office before the 5pm, Friday 7 September 2012).
