Adelaide coach Aurelio Vidmar has rubbished the suggestion his side will sit back and defend in its maiden voyage into the knockout phase of the Asian Champions League.
The Hyundai A-League side’s build-up to Wednesday night’s away meeting with Kashima Antlers has been testing.
Midfielder Jonas Salley has been ruled ineligible by the Asian Football Confederation due to a residency wrangle while influential skipper Travis Dodd is battling a virus.
Vidmar vowed the XI he settled on for the quarter-final meeting in Kashima would be out to win the meeting, not limit the damage.
“I’ve got a lot of faith in this team,” Vidmar said.
“There are a lot of players who love playing with their backs against the wall and this is the perfect set up for them, they thrive on it.”
“It’s over two legs but it doesn’t mean we’re going to sit back and defend.”
Salley’s unavailability leaves the Reds toying with a raft of starting line-ups.
“We’ve probably got a couple of combinations where we could bring Diego or Fabian (Barbiero) in,” Vidmar said.
“We’ve worked on a couple of things over the last couple of days and we can bring (Kristian) Sarkies further up the field as well.”
Striker Paul Agostino got through the full 90 minutes in the 1-0 loss to Melbourne Victory last Friday night and will play as a lone target up front.
Adelaide had a familiarisation session at an empty Kashima City Stadium on Tuesday.
“The stadium is fantastic and it will be a great atmosphere,” Vidmar said.
“The boys actually got to see on DVD what sort of noise they can expect at the stadium. They won’t get intimidated by it and we’re really looking forward to it.”
The second leg will be played at Adelaide’s Hindmarsh Stadium on Wednesday September 24.
