Ahead of Adelaide United’s fourth round fixture against Melbourne City, Craig Goodwin has claimed the newly-branded club’s signing of Spanish World Cup winner, David Villa, has been success for Australian football.
But Goodwin is not concerned with facing Spain’s highest-ever goal scorer, as the focus for United will be on the entire Melbourne City squad, as well as ensuring the Reds bring all three points back to South Australia.
“I would say it has been a success (the signing of Villa for the A-League),” Goodwin said.
“Although they haven’t won a game, he has scored two goals in the three games that he’s played. Unfortunately he has to leave early and I think a lot of people are a bit disappointed about that, but we’re looking forward to playing (on Friday).
“He’s done everything – he’s won the World Cup, the Champions League – so for every player going up against him you could say there’s a bit of ‘awe’ about him. But (we’ll) put that aside and remember that he’s just another player.
“Our outlook on every game is to try and get the three points and the game against City will be no different.”
Goodwin continued by stating prior to the match the Reds will be analysing the playing style of City in an effort to try and “nullify” their strengths and the threat posed by their attacking players in particular.
And the fact that United have secured seven points out of a possible nine in the opening three rounds will stand them in good stead heading into the clash with momentum definitely swinging in favour of Adelaide.
“It’s been a good start for us and we’ve played some good football, so we definitely have a bit of momentum with us,” Goodwin said.
“We’ll look to continue what we’ve been doing and working hard in training. But we don’t want to pump up anything that we’ve done because it’s only three games into the season.
“We’re looking to focus on improving… (how we) keep the ball and our final product. We’ve scored goals, but there have been a lot of times where we have had good chances to really finish teams off and (haven’t).
“Every player likes to play in the big games and we’ve had the tough teams up front, so it’s made every player that little bit more excited and lifted them a bit more.”
Goodwin concluded that City’s early season form compared to last season has definitely improved, especially at home, and the strength of their players is going to test the Reds as much as anyone so far this season.
Adelaide United will face Melbourne City on Friday 31 October at AAMI Park. Kick-off will be at 7:40pm local time (7:10 ACDT).
