Adelaide United defenders Iain Fyfe and Mark Rudan will face their old club for the first time when the Reds tackle Sydney FC at Sydney Football Stadium on Sunday.
Fyfe left Sydney at the end of last season after 88 games with the Sky Blues.
United coach Aurelio Vidmar said he was optimistic Fyfe would perform well against his old side.
“He shouldn’t think about any sort of pressure. He’s an Adelaide United player now, he’s in a red shirt, he had a great time in Sydney, he had a great rapport with the fans and also the people at the club,” he said.
“Sometimes I think players that leave a club and go back generally do well. I think we’ve probably had that when players leave our club that they come back and score or have a decent performance.”
Rudan (a Sydney player from 2005-07) is a surprise inclusion as Adelaide had planned to ease the 33-year-old back into action in a few weeks time.
The veteran will start the game on the bench but will still be a steady influence according to goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic.
“Rudan is a great player; he’s a leader and that’s what Sash (Sasa Ognenovski) had so hopefully it’s a good replacement and hopefully he can be half as good as Sash,” he said.
The duo are set to be critical links in Adelaide’s defence which impressed against Perth but face a greater challenge against Sydney.
Vidmar was full of praise for the team’s work in the back third last weekend.
“I thought our defenders last week were superb, really nullified Dadi and Sterjovski and we expect the same performance this week,” he said.
“It’s not going to be easy, obviously Aloisi, Brosque and they’ve still got Corica who might come in as well and certainly those boys coming in from behind in the front third are probably one of the most dangerous sides in the competition.”
While Adelaide’s defence has been given an early tick of approval, Vidmar said there was still room for improvement in attack.
“Sure we wanted more opportunities in terms of shots on goals and things like that, and everyone wants that, but Perth played very well as well, they didn’t allow us to do that,” Vidmar said.
“When we did get into our front third we just lacked that little bit of sharpness and a little bit of smart play that allows us to get that final pass in.”
“We’ve taken some real poor options in that front third, especially in that second half, so if we can get better in that area then we are on the right track.”
