New Sydney FC skipper John Aloisi admits his side’s 2-1 loss to Melbourne Victory in the first leg of the major semi final could have been far worse.
Having conceded two first-half scores, the visitors appeared in deep trouble before Aloisi bagged a vital away goal to keep his side in the tie after 90 minutes.
“We were a little bit worried that they were going to run away with it,” an honest Aloisi said.
“At 2-0 they could have easily gone on to win (by) three or four (goals) and the tie would have been dead. But then when we scored I thought we got back into the game, and again the first 10-15 minutes of the second half we did alright.”
“But we didn’t capitalise when they had 10 men and we should have done better. We weren’t patient enough to get the ball out wide and start getting balls into the box, so we should have exploited that a bit more.”
“In saying that the result was not too bad.”
A 1-0 win in the return fixture at the SFS on March 7 would see the Sky Blues earn the right to host next month’s grand final.
And the in-form Aloisi is confident his men can bounce back strongly in front of the SFS faithful.
“We know what we have to do – we have to do what we did last Sunday,” a defiant Aloisi said in reference to the Sky Blues’ 2-0 win over Melbourne in the final regular-season round five days ago.
“The crowd’s going to be there and I expect that the atmosphere’s going to be just as good as last Sunday.”
“We know it’s going to be a tough game because Melbourne are a good side and they can get us on the break, but if we defend well I’m sure we’ll score goals.”
The captain also played down Kevin Muscat’s influence after the inspirational Victory skipper starred in his first match back from suspension.
“They’re a good side but with Kevin Muscat and Archie Thompson we beat them 3-0 (in Round 10), so we can still win if they’ve got Kevin Muscat,” he quipped.
“We’ve got a good enough side to beat anyone in this league – we just have to make sure we play well on the day.”
Meanwhile, Victory striker Nik Mrdja is facing a two-match ban for his stray elbow on Shannon Cole in the 72nd minute of Thursday’s heated encounter.
