Adelaide United FC’s match against Sydney FC at Allianz Stadium may be a case of top against bottom on the table but that is not how the Reds are looking at it.
Adelaide United FC-s match against Sydney FC at Allianz Stadium tomorrow night may be a case of top against bottom on the Hyundai A-League table but that is far from how the Reds are looking at it.
While the Reds have had a vastly contrasting first seven weeks to the Sky Blues, United Coach John Kosmina is certainly not being fooled into thinking his team can just turn up and expect to notch up their sixth win of the season.
Sydney FC, although they have gone down in their past three games, have shown they have an appetite for goals and know how to find the back of the net.
Led by marquee signing, Italian legend Alessandro Del Piero, goal scoring is an area the Sky Blues have been proficient in and Kosmina believes this makes them an extremely dangerous adversary on top of the fact that they will be desperate to put their season back on track.
“It-s a big banana skin… it-s a tough game because Sydney aren-t as bad a side as their position says,” Kosmina said.
“They-ve played some decent football…they-re not a good team out of luck but I think luck hasn-t gone in their favour.”
“The important thing to recognise is that they-ve actually scored goals even when they-ve been beaten, and they-ve been good goals as well.”
“They create opportunities so we have to be careful, but if we go there and focus on what we need to do and do it well then I think we can come away with something.”
Doing it well for the Reds has been based around a sound defensive structure and utilising the variety of creative attacking players at Kosmina-s disposal.
This formula that has served the Reds well so far is likely not to be tinkered with much against Sydney FC, Kosmina reluctant to get caught up in a shootout and put too much emphasis on trying to curtail Del Piero.
Further to Del Piero-s obvious threat, Kosmina also expects the Sky Blues to be bolstered by the inclusions of Jason Culina and Terry Antonis.
“I-d be happy if we scored one goal, won 1-0 and got three points,” Kosmina said.
“Obviously we want to keep another clean sheet, we-ve been very good defensively, but if you go there and focus purely on Del Piero it might detract from what you-re normal job is, so we need to be careful about that.”
“But we-ve talked about the things he (Del Piero) does and we-ll have a look in our team meeting before the game where he and Sydney have been successful and how we balance things up.”
After watching the Reds take the points over Melbourne Heart last Saturday, Kosmina appears likely to adopt his ‘if it ain-t broke don-t fix it- philosophy against Sydney FC as he strives to see continued improvement from his players.
“I think this team still has a lot of potential in it, a lot of potential to improve…and I think this is the first week since the season began where we have actually kept the same starting eleven,” Kosmina said.
The Reds are going to have to display a large amount of this potential if they are to get over the line on Friday night. Kick-Off is at 7.30pm AEDT (7.30pm ACDT).
Hyundai A-League 2012/13 Season – Week 8
SYDNEY FC v ADELAIDE UNITED FC
Friday 23 November 2012, Allianz Stadium
Kick-Off: 7.30pm AEDT (7.00pm ACDT)
Referee: Peter Green
TV: Live & Exclusive on Fox Sports 1
Radio: Live on Grandstand Digital and streaming online
Twitter: twitter.com/adelutd_fc (hash tag #SYDvREDS)
Adelaide United squad: 1.Eugene Galekovic (gk) (c), 2.Osama Malik, 3.Nigel Boogaard, 5.Iain Fyfe, 6.Cassio, 8.Marcelo Carrusca, 10.Dario Vidosic, 11.Bruce Djite, 14.Cameron Watson, 17.Iain Ramsay, 18.Fabian Barbiero, 20.Paul Izzo (gk), 21.Jeronimo Neumann, 22.Fabio Ferreira, 23.Evan Kostopoulos
Ins: Paul Izzo (gk) (back from international duty)
Outs: John Hall (gk) (returns to NYL squad)
Unavailable: Jon McKain (leg – under review), Daniel Bowles (hip – 1 week), Jake Barker-Daish (groin – 3 weeks)
Sydney FC Squad: 1.Ivan Necevski (gk), 2.Sebastian Ryall, 3.Fabio, 4.Pascal Bosschaart, 6.Jason Culina, 7.Brett Emerton, 8.Adam Griffiths, 10.Alessandro Del Piero, 12.Blake Powell, 15.Terry McFlynn, 16.Joel Chianese, 17.Terry Antonis, 18.Trent McClenahan, 20.Vedran Janjetovic (gk), 21.Yairo Yau, 22.Ali Abbas, 23.Rhyan Grant
*Two to be omitted
Ins: Jason Culina (returns from injury), Adam Griffiths (returns from injury), Terry Antonis (returns from international duty – Qantas Young Socceroos)
Outs: Paul Reid (not selected)
Unavailable: Nil
