New Sydney FC signing Reza Ghoochannejhad has been cleared to face Melbourne City tomorrow, after the Iranian’s visa was granted by the department of immigration.
Head Coach Steve Corica confirmed the 31-year old striker would be available, and will be assessed following his first training session with his new team-mates this morning.
“Reza has got the visa through,” said Corica. “It’s going to be his first training session today so we’ll just wait and see after the training session how he is, and what we are going to do with him this weekend.
“We’ve got a couple of boys back from injury as well, so we’re looking at a strong squad for tomorrow.”
Ghoochannejhad arrived in Australia on Thursday morning following his loan deal from Cypriot club APOEL while the Sky Blues also made a late swoop for Newcastle Jets forward Mitch Austin, who also comes into contention.
“It’s good to have quality players, and Reza is definitely one,” continued Corica. “Mitch Austin is a good replacement for Charlie (Lokoli-Ngoy) and I’m looking forward to seeing him play. He’s got a lot of pace which is maybe something we’ve missed since Trent Buhagiar has been out.”
Corica will also be able to welcome back Sky Blues full back Rhyan Grant who returns having represented the Socceroos at the AFC Asian Cup in United Arab Emirates.
“Rhyno has been out the whole month of January and missed six games. He did a wonderful job for the Socceroos but we’re happy to have him back.
“He gives us a good attacking threat down the right-hand side and a lot of energy as well which is great for us.”
The Sky Blues beat Melbourne City 3-0 away in their first encounter this season on their back of their FFA Cup Final appearance in Adelaide.
And Corica believes a similar performance in the offing this weekend.
“We’ve been very good at home in the recent four or five weeks, so we’re looking forward to a good game.
“We had a fantastic game against them last time and had a great win. We were great in attack but also defensively very strong and didn’t allow them to break us down.
“It will be much the same this weekend, we’ll be very compact, let them make the mistakes and we want to play some good football in front of our home crowd.”
The game (5pm kick off) will be Sydney FC’s final Hyundai A-League game at Netstrata Jubilee Oval before we move to Leichhardt Oval in two weeks’ time.
