Leading into Saturday’s elimination Semi Final at Allianz Stadium, Sydney FC Head Coach Graham Arnold believes his squad has the necessary big game experience to triumph against Adelaide United.
Having lost to the Reds in their most recent game, Arnold said the scoreboard was not reflective of the Sky Blues performance and he believes Sydney FC have learnt how to overcome Adelaide as a result of April’s clash.
“I’ve got to be confident, I have a lot of trust and faith in this playing group,” Arnold said.
“I’ve got a lot of players with big game experiences, Marc Janko is still in the Austrian National Team, Shane Smeltz has played at a World Cup.
“We’ve got some Championship winners in there in Bernie Ibini, Matty Jurman and Seb Ryall and then we’ve got some big foreign players who have played in huge games overseas so they know what big games are about and I’m very confident in their big game experience.
“They beat us on the scoreboard [last time] but if you look at the performance that we put in that night, Eugene Galekovic had a fantastic game, and probably had the best game of his career in that 90 minutes,” he continued.
“Psychologically after the game when you have six or seven of their players coming to you and saying ‘we had a balaclava on tonight and we robbed you’, players aren’t silly, they know who won.”
Coming up against Adelaide for the fifth time this season, Arnold said all his players have to do is be relaxed and continue their record breaking best season ever, as he called on all fans in Sydney to turn out in support of the Sky Blues.
“It’s about keeping relaxed,” Arnold said.
“If the boys don’t know the tactics by now after playing against Adelaide four times this year, if the boys aren’t fit now they never will be.
“We’ll come up with a game plan on Thursday and as long as the boys go an carry out the game plan and play to the instructions then I’m very confident that we’ll get the right result and hopefully in front of a huge crowd.
“We’ve had our best season ever in terms of points and in terms of goals and whenever we play here it’s an exciting game and we really need the Sydney FC supporters to come out and support us this week because we are the only team left in NSW, maybe even some Wanderers fans [will turn out] as well.”
Sydney FC take on Adelaide United in the semi-final of the Hyundai A-League Finals Series presented by Foxtel. Purchase your tickets today and cheer the Sky Blues in their must win game.
Sydney FC take on English Premier League giants Tottenham Hotspur in a football classic at ANZ Stadium on Saturday 30 May. Purchase your tickets today for this not to be missed football event!
