Sydney FC striker John Aloisi is confident his team-mates won’t be overawed by the presence of living legend Robbie Fowler when they host North Queensland Fury at the SFS on Saturday night.
The former England and Liverpool star has lived up to the hype in the opening rounds of his maiden Hyundai A-League season, scoring three goals in five appearances for the competition newcomer.
While Fowler’s best years may be behind him, Aloisi admits the man known simply as ‘God’ among football fans remains a serious handful.
“A player that’s played at such a high level doesn’t lose his awareness and you can see on the pitch, even if he’s not physically the same as what he used to be when he was playing at Liverpool, his touch and his awareness around the box is brilliant,” Aloisi said.
But the former Socceroo backed his team-mates rise to the sizable challenge of containing the legendary 34-year-old.
“I think the players always like playing against top quality opposition and Robbie Fowler’s that,” he said.
“You saw his goal last week was class, it was one of the best goals of the year I thought.”
“His control and his composure in front of goal – and that’s what people are going to come to see on Saturday night.”
“That’s what you want to play against and it’ll be even better if we beat them.”
Sydney’s main man was quick to distance himself from talk the Round 6 clash will double as a shoot-out between he and his fellow striker.
“At the end of the day it’s 11 players against 11 players and strikers aren’t any good without service and so we rely on our team-mates, it’s a team sport,” he said.
But at least one fan – NRL and Wests Tigers star Robbie Farah who is an unabashed Sydney FC and Liverpool supporter – is hoping both Aloisi and Fowler play starring roles.
Farah, who just happened to have a Liverpool shirt in his bag when he ran into Fowler in Townsville earlier this year, was on hand at the Sky Blues’ final training session on Friday morning.
“Obviously I’d love Sydney to win, hopefully Robbie can score a goal and maybe Johnny score a couple more and the boys can get the win,” Farah said.
“I’m coming out to the game tomorrow night so hopefully it’s a good crowd and good to watch Robbie play in Australia.”
But Aloisi, who will bring up 400 national league appearances on Saturday night following stints in England, Italy and Spain, will happily settle for a win.
“I don’t keep count of the games I’ve played but it’s an important game for the club and myself this week to get back to winning ways,” Aloisi said of the milestone.
“I don’t really look at how many games I’ve played but I suppose it’s nice when you sit back at the end of your career and see that you’ve played a lot of games at a high level.”
