Fresh from defeating the most successful team in the competition, Sydney FC striker Matt Simon says there’s no reason the Sky Blues can’t go on to top Group H at the conclusion of matchday six in the AFC Champions League.
Having defeated the reigning Champions Guangzhou Evergrande in matchday two and Pohang Steelers last night, Simon said the mood in the Sky Blues camp is good as he said he was pleased with his own individual performance.
“I don’t see why not,” Simon said when asked about topping the group.
“I’m feeling pretty good, it was a great result for the club. We’re now on 9 points, clear at the top of the group so the boys are feeling pretty good today.
“I was happy with my performance, obviously scoring a goal is my main job so I would have been happy with that but to get the ovation from the crowd is always pleasing. I’m just glad the team won and we got the three points.
“We just go out with a gameplan each week, Arnie sets a gameplan for the different teams that we play, and the boys are always up for every game,” he continued.
“The Asian Champions League is a pretty big competition and we just look forward to playing those games and we’re just happy with the result.
“I think the teams we play against, people say we’re in a group of death, and Pohang have won the ACL three times so it’s a great result to beat them twice. We’ve got Urawa Reds next, they’re a great team and hopefully we can put in a good performance at home to show our fans and keep them happy.
“We beat Evergrande at home, obviously it’s going to be a different place when we go there and be pretty hostile, but we’re going to look forward to that and the boys enjoy that kind of environment so we’ll see how we go.”
Sandwiched between AFC Champions League commitments is the Sky Blues final Hyundai A-League clash of the season against Perth Glory, and Simon is hoping to carry on the high from Tuesday night and finish the league on positive note.
“The A-League form is pretty disappointing for us but we’ve done well in the ACL and we kept that going last night,” Simon said.
“We look forward now to Sunday against Perth and we want to finish on a good note and give the fans something to go home happy about.
“Because we’re now out of contention in the A-League, after Perth we can focus on the ACL, but we’ve got Perth on Sunday and even though we can’t make the finals we go out every week to win and we’ll be wanting to finish on a good note and put in a good performance.”
Sydney FC take on Perth Glory at Allianz Stadium in the final clash of the Hyundai A-League season on Sunday (kick off 5pm). Make it a family fun day out, purchase your tickets now.
Sydney FC’s 2016 AFC Champions League campaign proudly supported by StarTrack and UNSW
