Hear what Liam Reddy, Terry McFlynn and Alex Brosque have to say about July’s Festival of Football Tournament in Sydney.
Sydney FC players Liam Reddy, Terry McFlynn and Alex Brosque were front and centre for yesterday-s launch of the Sydney 2010 Festival of Football launch.
The reigning Hyundai A-League Champions will clash with Blackburn Rovers, AEK Athens and Glasgow Rangers in a round robin tournament between July 25 and 31, 2010 at the Sydney Football Stadium.
Please find quotes from the trio available to media for use:
Liam Reddy
1. Liam, it seems like you-ve come to the club at the right time. Your thoughts?
Yeah, it-s definitely a club that-s moving forward in the right direction. Obviously they-re not content with winning the ‘double- last year and they really want to push forward and strive to be the best team in the country and bringing this tournament here is another way of doing that. These are three quality opponents that are coming to play Sydney FC in Sydney, which is great for the fans, the club and the players.
2. Like you said three high calibre opponents. How will Sydney be approaching the tournament on the field?
Obviously we-ll be going out to win every game and aim to play attractive football, so hopefully the fans can get out there and watch us play some nice attractive football and get the results.
3. You-ve got the Everton game and now this tournament. What is the general feeling around the team at the moment?
Yeah, it-s very good. I think for a club to attract four good quality European teams it-s great for the club and we start our pre-season officially on Monday so I-m sure there-ll be a big buzz around the club.
4. On more of a personal note, these could be some very big matches for as you look to cement your spot in goals. Is that something in the front of your mind?
Yeah definitely, we start on Monday so it-ll be very competitive for all the players in the squad. But for myself and Ivan [Necevski], it-s a bit different being goalkeeper, you either play or you don-t so for a couple of these games I can definitely cement my spot there and be the number one keeper at the start of the season.
5. How important are results for the players in tournaments like this? Is it all about the exhibition factor or will the team be pushing to win all three games?
I think obviously you want to give your fans a good show and certainly play some attractive football but you also want to win games. So winning is a habit and Sydney proved last year that they-ve got a good culture and a winning culture, so I-m sure we-ll be definitely going out there to win.
6. They-re three massive opponents, but who are you looking forward to playing against the most?
Probably Glasgow Rangers. I had the opportunity last year at Brisbane to play against Celtic, but I-ve always followed Glasgow – if I was going to say there was a Scottish team I followed, it would be Glasgow [Rangers]. Having the opportunity to play with Charlie Miller and Craig Moore, who are ex-Glasgow Rangers players, I think that will make it a little bit more special for me to play that game. I-m really looking forward to it.
Terry McFlynn
1. Terry, you-ve been with the club since day one, is this a tournament you would-ve pictured hosting five or six years ago?
I think it shows how far football in Australia has come along in the five years of the A-League. The fact that we can bring in the Scottish Champions, Blackburn Rovers, who is one of only four teams to ever win the English Premier League, AEK Athens, eleven-time Greek Champions, I mean these are fantastic football clubs in Europe and I think it shows how far not only Sydney FC but football in Australia has come that we can bring these teams here.
2. Being the only foundation player remaining at the club, what does it mean for you to see these sorts of games come to Sydney?
I think not just me but all the boys are really looking forward to it. I think it-s a great indicator to us players to see where we-re at and we can put ourselves against the top European players to see where we sit. So, all the boys are looking forward to it.
3. How important is it for the club-s fans to see these types of games at home?
Yeah I think it-s very important and I would urge all the members and fans to come out and support us against some of the biggest clubs in Europe. Obviously it-s great for us as players to play against them. It-s not every day you get to see these sort of players playing on your doorstep. So I think it-s very important for the fans to come out and support this tournament so we can keep it going.
4. Now the tournament has a very interesting point-s tally system. Is that something that you hope will see more goals scored in these games?
Yeah obviously it-s going to make it very exciting for the fans. Obviously you-ve got three points for the win, one point for the draw, which is normal, but the extra incentive is a point per goal [scored] so I think you might see teams attack a little bit more and that can only be exciting for the fans.
5. Is this a time for the club to experiment during the pre-season or do you put all that aside and just go for the win in all three matches?
Look, there-s a lot of work to be done between now and then. Pre-season training starts on Monday, we-ve got to get everyone 100% fit, health wise get everyone on board and then we-ll approach each game as it comes and we deal with every game, whoever we play, we-ll try and win it but the important thing is to keep everyone injury-free for the first game against Melbourne on August 7.
6. This is shaping to be a massive 12 months for the club. Starting with Everton then this tournament before the Asian Champions League next year and the fans will be riding the World Cup wave. Excited?
Yeah, very excited, I think this is a very exciting time for Sydney FC. Like you say, the World Cup just around the corner now and it-s going to be a full twelve months of football for Sydney FC fans to enjoy.
Alex Brosque
1. How excited are the players for this tournament coming up?
Very excited, we-ve been hearing about this for a little while but to have it actually confirmed is exciting for all the boys. We may never get a chance to play against [English] Premier League clubs again, so it-s going to be unreal to have these guys come out.
2. For you personally, is there a particular team that you-re most excited about?
I think, being Australian, having guys like [Brett] Emerton and [Vince] Grella, Blackburn is a game that we-ll all be looking forward to. But in saying that, Rangers is a big club, AEK Athens is Greek Champion as well so all games are going to be excellent. But, being Australian we-re looking forward to playing against the Aussie boys.
3. There are countless fans that say you should-ve gone to the World Cup. Does playing in this type of tournament smooth over that disappointment for you at all?
I-m not really disappointed, I didn-t think I had too much of a chance, so I-m not looking at anything that happens now to ease the pain, so to speak. I-m just buzzing to get back into training with Sydney and playing games like this, it helps going into our season and it-s exciting for the club. But, I guess personally as well to play against these clubs; we-re just buzzing about it.
4. There is a big 12 months coming up for the club, is this type of tournament a good way to continue the high from last season-s double?
Yeah definitely, last season was incredible to win the Premiership how we did on the last day and then to win the Grand Final down in Melbourne was unreal and now leading into this season, to play against teams like this – they-re big international games so it-s a good test for us to see where we stand compared to clubs like this. Even though it-s a pre-season tournament, like you saw with the Socceroos game last week, there won-t be too much friendliness in them and it will be a good test to see where we are and then a good lead up for our season and the [Asian] Champions League.
5. Even though Sydney FC is the only Hyundai A-League representative, do you see this having a positive effect on the league overall?
I think so, obviously it increases the awareness of the A-League and especially if we can hold our own and do well against these clubs, with a three-year deal struck to continue this in the future, it-ll bring out even bigger clubs and it-ll just be great for the league in general.
6. The team will be pushing into Asia with the Champions League next year, but is this a good way for the club to engage fans from other parts of the world as well?
Yeah of course, I think a lot of fans from all three of these teams, which there are a lot of Greek fans, English fans and Scottish fans will come out to these games and hopefully they like what they see when they see us play as well and that-s the important thing, if we can do well against these teams with the bonus point per goal scored – if we can score a few goals and be exciting about the way that we play, then I think it will definitely increase our support and the amount of fans we get coming in through the season.
