Experienced Adelaide pair Eugene Galekovic and Travis Dodd have urged their teammates to forget about the 4-0 drubbing Melbourne handed the Reds in the second-leg of the semi-final ahead of Saturday’s Grand Final at Telstra Dome.
Galekovic and Dodd said the special circumstances surrounding the two grand finalists’ previous clash 14 days ago, in that Adelaide was trying to turn around a 2-0 deficit from the first leg of the semi-final, meant that the huge margin was not a true reflection of the difference between the two sides.
“I think it’s a different set of circumstances,” Dodd said on the eve of the match. “We needed to score three goals that game and to concede on early on, that basically killed the tie.”
Galekovic agreed, saying that the 2-0 loss to Melbourne in the first leg of the semi-final at Hindmarsh Stadium had put the Reds on a hiding to nothing for the second leg.
“Our first game at home against them was disappointing, losing 2-0 at home in front of our crowd,” the A-League Goalkeeper of the Year said. “That’s where we lost it. When we scored early, the game as pretty much debt, we just have to forget about that and worry about what we have to do.”
Adelaide’s three losses to Melbourne in the regular season were all by one-goal margins and Dodd is taking confidence from that fact.
“I think we can afford to forget about (the semi-finals) and look at games previously. We look at the one where we lost 1-0 at Telstra Dome to a penalty towards the end of the game. That was a tight game. We know we can match these guys, they are not invincible, they’ve lost a few games this season, there’s no reason we can’t beat them tomorrow,” he said.
Dodd admitted that the Reds had failed to put their best foot forward in any of the regular season matches against the Victory. He said that both games at the Telstra Dome had been affected by Adelaide’s commitments with the Asian Champions League which had resulted in a less-than-ideal preparation.
“I think if you look at those games we played here at Telstra Dome, one was a catch up game, a mid-week game, and one was before we went away to Japan for a quarter final,” he said.
“Without wanting to make too many excuses I think there were other circumstances involved at the time and I think now we’ve got a clear head and we can go out there and worry about this game.”
Galekovic, who sat on the bench for Melbourne when it hammered Adelaide 6-0 in the Grand Final two years ago, said the first goal of the match will be vital.
“We’ve got a good defensive record and every time we’ve scored first, it increases the chance of us winning. That’s do different against Melbourne, hopefully we do the same thing, we score first and put the pressure back on the,” he said.
