Sydney FC Head Coach Ufuk Talay and striker Joe Lolley stressed the squads physical and mental resilience coming off the back of a frustrating defeat in the AFC Champions League Two against Lion City Sailors away in Singapore.
They emphasised the teams hunger looking forward as they embark on their finals campaign, starting with Saturday afternoon’s home clash against Steve Corica’s Auckland FC on their hunt for a place in the finals.
“It’s not easy, travelling and playing in midweek games, but we’ll look to change things up a little bit, maybe rotate the squad and get some fresh legs on the park.
“We’re playing against a good opposition; that’s in good form and in a good place within the competition. We need to win this game, to cement our spot into the 6 in the last 4 games, but also with one eye, on a big a clash on Wednesday night.” Talay said.
Ufuk Talay highlighted the importance of a win Saturday evening, in a massive clash with Auckland FC led by Sydney FC’s Hall of Famer Steve Corica, where both sides will have their sights on the three points.
“Every game is like a final for us, we just need to perform well and win the game and put ourselves in a good position after the last four rounds of the season.
“Hopefully we get in a position where we can play a home final, and that that’d be great for the group.”
He also confirmed Alex Grant will be side-lined for a number of weeks due to a calf injury sustained in their away fixture in Adelaide.
“I think [Alex Grant] will be out for a longer period than what we suspected, but we’ll still see how he goes, obviously daily and weekly, and go from there.”
Joe Lolley reflected on Wednesday nights AFC Champions League Two first-leg game and stressed the squads shift in focus towards the Saturday match against Auckland.
“We can’t have excuses, and we have to make sure that we go out with the right mentality tomorrow and we know how big of a game it is for us, and you know them they’re going to be firing and desperate to get a result.”
Lolley expresses the squad’s concentration for a top 6 finish and their ability to adapt Ufuk Talay’s game by game mentality on their run into the final. He highlighted his teammates mental and physical states as they prepare for their finals run.
“We’re not concentrating too much about who we’re playing at the moment we just need to make sure we get the right results, whoever that is, it’s pretty tight up there, so we’re just concentrating on ourselves.”
“We’re fighting to make sure we make the top six and we’re fighting to try and get into the final of the Champions League.” Lolley said.
“I’m sure all the all the boys are ready.
“it’s very much just a mental battle, we’re all physically capable.”
Sydney FC will face Auckland FC on Saturday night in a must win fight for three points, followed up on the 16th of April with a second-leg AFC Champions League Two fixture at home against the Singapore’s Lion City Sailors.
