Adelaide United is confident the lingering disappointment of losing the 2006/07 A-League grand final won’t cloud its focus heading into its clash against Melbourne Victory at the Telstra Dome this Friday.
Adelaide United is confident the lingering disappointment of losing the 2006/07 A-League grand final won’t cloud its focus heading into its clash against Melbourne Victory at the Telstra Dome this Friday.
A disgruntled United lost that game 6-0 and there’s no doubting it played a part in the departure of the then coach John Kosmina and captain Ross Aloisi.
The debacle was raised again by Reds’ midfielder Diego and then Victory skipper Kevin Muscat earlier this week, in what has almost become a predictably spicy build-up before the teams games.
United’s current coach Aurelio Vidmar admitted that nightmare afternoon in Melbourne was ‘etched in the club’s memory forever’ but said the current squad didn’t have mental scars from the clash.
Only a handful of players from the grand final side remain at Hindmarsh Stadium while goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic and Kristian Sarkies were on the other side two season ago.
“Certainly I’ve moved on and there’s only maybe three or four players left from that grand final anyway,” Vidmar said.
“It’s a completely different era.”
While the club has moved forward, Vidmar said it wouldn’t stop the teams throwing everything against each other when the match kicks off.
“I think it’s a really healthy rivalry and (Friday-s game) isn’t going to be any different. It’s going to be quite intense, nice and aggressive.”
Vidmar said several of the Reds’ recruits had little knowledge of the rivalry between the clubs but added they were experienced enough to ‘switch on’ for any game.
Veteran defender Ang Costanzo agreed the team’s only grand final appearance was ancient history.
“Which game was that mate,” Costanzo joked after the team’s Thursday training session.
“We are over it, we’ve moved on since then. It’s old news.”
Past stoushes aside, the top-of-the-table clash is set to be a battle between arguably the best attack and defence in the A-League.
The Victory has scored nine goals this season while the Reds have recorded clean sheets in two games and conceded just one in their other match.
Vidmar said stopping Melbourne’s strikers and midfielders would be the key to the contest.
“Certainly the players they’ve got in their front third are extremely dangerous and we saw that against the Newcastle Jets. Given a little bit of space and freedom they can hurt you,” he said.
“It’s certainly an area where we need to be compact and really keeping a close eye on Hernandez, Thompson, Celeski; Allsopp; there’s just a lot movement in that area and it’s certainly going to be a real challenge for us.”
Costanzo said United’s defensive line-up were looking forward to tackling their classy opposition.
“We’ve got a pretty good back four at the moment, we are very settled,” Costanzo said.
“They’ve got quality strikers – you’ve got Archie Thompson that came off the bench last week so that-s a good luxury (for Melbourne) to have.”
