Coach John Kosmina will be looking for another consistently high effort and output from the Reds when they meet the Central Coast Mariners on Wednesday night.
Adelaide United FC Coach John Kosmina will be looking for another consistently high effort and output from the Reds tomorrow night (Wednesday 12 September 2012) when they meet the Central Coast Mariners at Hindmarsh Stadium in their final tune up before the ACL Quarter Final showdown with Bunyodkor.
Coming off Friday-s 6-2 victory over Brisbane Roar, the Reds go into their final dress rehearsal before their September 19 AFC Champions League clash in promising form.
While it may only be pre season, scoring six goals against the reigning Hyundai A-League champions is still no mean feat, particularly with the workload the Reds- squad has been through in order to have them in the best physical shape possible leading into next Wednesday.
Impressed by what the players bought to the table against the Roar, Kosmina is after similar in terms of what he wants to see against the Mariners.
“Consistency of effort. Our effort against Brisbane last Friday night was nothing short of sensational,” Kosmina said.
“We did a really hard block last Wednesday and a long session on Thursday, they covered 7.5 kilometres a day before a game…and to back up with the effort they put in on Friday night and the consistency of effort throughout the game, it was good.”
“So that aspect of it I-m happy with and we can fine tune the football as we go along.”
Also pleasingly for Kosmina is that in their four pre season trials against Hyundai A-League teams, the Reds have found the back of the net 14 times, which is an area he knows was a struggle last season.
On the flipside, United conceded nine times in those four games, but Kosmina is confident the team-s defensive prowess, which has seen it let in the fewest goals of any side in this year-s competition, will hold up.
“Maybe we could have conceded a couple more (against Brisbane), but we certainly could have scored a lot more and that-s the positive aspect for me,” Kosmina said.
“We weren-t making a lot of chances last season, we relied on set pieces, but we-ve scored quite a few in general play and made good chances in the past three or four matches so I-m happy with that.”
Kosmina hinted the team that runs out against the Mariners will be close to the starting line up that would likely run out against Bunyodkor, while he also all but ruled out Argentine Marcelo Carrusca and midfielder Zenon Caravella from the ACL 1st Leg as they continue to recover from slight injury concerns.
“I think we-re just about settled at the moment. Last week-s performance against Brisbane was really good and as much as when you watch it live from the bench you think there are things we maybe didn-t do so well…once you have a good look at it on the video, it was a lot better than we thought,” Kosmina said.
“A lot of good things came out of that game last Friday so it-s almost a scenario of ‘if it ain-t broke don-t fix it-, we played against a good side and won 6-2.”
“You can try and force players back in but it achieves absolutely nothing, so if we-ve got an opportunity to rest people we-ll rest them and get them right because as much as it-s about the ACL, they-re here for the A-League which is our bread and butter as well.”
The Mariners were the standout team in the A-League last season as they ran out minor Premiers, and Kosmina looks forward to being exposed to another different and difficult challenge.
“We played against different styles. Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and now the Central Coast, it-s getting players used to adapting to different patterns and I-m happy with that because once you-ve got them thinking and able to adapt, then you can hopefully deal with anything Bunyodkor throw at us,” Kosmina said.
Match Details
Adelaide United FC v Central Coast Mariners
Wednesday 12 September 2012, Hindmarsh Stadium
Kick-Off 7.30pm (Gates Open 6.30pm)
Entry is through the Holden Street Gate only.
Ticket Prices – Adults $10, Concession $5, Kids 15 & under FREE
Follow the match on Twitter with hash tag #REDSvCCM
