Sydney FC coach Vitezslav Lavicka says the club is in the market for some new signings ahead of their Asian Champions League campaign.
The Sky Blues stretched their unbeaten Hyundai A-League run to eight matches with a 2-2 draw against Melbourne Heart in the final round of the regular season on Saturday night.
While delighted with the run of form at the back of end of the season, Lavicka pointed to Sydney trying to strengthen their squad ahead of the ACL.
“We have to wait for permission from FFA whether we can or not,” Lavicka said.
“We would like to have some names, we need to do it very quickly. I would like to bring them as soon as possible to settle and train together with the team fully.”
“We have had a good end of the season in the A-League, this is good for the confidence of the players and we now have to focus on the ACL.”
Sydney opens its ACL campaign at home against South Korean side Suwon Bluewings on March 2 and has Japanese club Kashima Antlers along with Shanghai Shenhua from China in their group.
One man who will be instrumental to the Sky Blues’ fortunes in Asia is marquee man Nick Carle.
Carle illustrated his importance to the Sydney cause with both goals against the Heart, including a fine 88th minute strike that saw him play party-pooper for the farewell of John Aloisi and Josip Skoko.
Lavicka has backed the former Crystal Palace and Socceroo man to be a central figure.
“Nicky is a good quality player, he unfortunately had a bad start to the season with many injuries for a long time, but now he-s more settled and picked up in confidence,” Lavicka said.
“We need good quality players in the squad (for the ACL) and Nicky is one of them.”
Sydney captain Terry McFlynn seconded Lavicka-s thoughts on the mentality of the squad at this stage of the season.
“We’ve been turning performances into results, we’ve gone eight matches undefeated and with that brings confidence,” McFlynn said.
“We’ll be drawing from that going into the Asian Champions League – it-s a competition everyone-s looking forward to.”
In addition to Carle, journeyman Brazilian striker Bruno Cazarine, who has experience in Asian football, and Finnish international striker Juho Makela again impressed and will provide a crucial dual-pronged threat for the Sky Blues in Asia.
