Wellington Phoenix midfielder Leo Bertos is warning Melbourne Victory signing Marco Rojas of an unforgiving Westpac Stadium crowd on Sunday – and he has more knowledge than most of how tough it can be.
Wellington Phoenix midfielder Leo Bertos is warning Melbourne Victory signing Marco Rojas of an unforgiving Westpac Stadium crowd on Sunday – and he has more knowledge than most of how tough it can be.
Rojas – who started his career at the Phoenix thanks to a scholarship from the team’s supporters club, the Yellow Fever – will play against his former teammates for the first time since joining the Victory at the end of last season.
And Bertos was another Kiwi who incurred the wrath of Wellington supporters when he played with the Perth Glory in the Phoenix’s first year in the Hyundai A-League.
“Every time I touched the ball the crowd was booing me,” Bertos recollected.
“They’ll do the same for him, that’s for sure. We all know how good he is anyway and [the crowd] will try and help us to do what we can to put him off his game.”
Bertos ruled out any unruly banter from the Phoenix players on the pitch, however, as a way of putting Rojas off his game.
“There’s a little thing called karma, and if sometimes you say the wrong thing it’ll bite you in the backside. He’ll probably whip through and score the winning goal,” Bertos said.
“On the field we’ll be pretty physical with Marco and definitely let him know he’s in for a game. It’ll be a tough night for him that’s for sure.”
But it could be a tough night for the Phoenix with the Victory also boasting Harry Kewell in the attacking end to accompany Rojas.
“They’re obviously a big club and they’ve got some big, big signings this season, too. They haven’t had the best of starts and they’ll have a bit of pressure on them,” Bertos said.
“I don’t know how their confidence will be, but we’ve really got to look at what we’re doing, concentrating on the things we want to do and do them well. Then the results should hopefully take care of themselves.”
Wellington would be satisfied with four points and fourth place on the Hyundai A-League table given their torrid pre-season but Bertos warned another three points this weekend would be crucial if they wanted to keep in touch with pacesetters Brisbane Roar and Perth Glory.
“You don’t want that big gap to start stretching or widening. It’s a big one for us, especially coming off a loss last week. It’d be nice to get another win, get us firing again and hopefully kick on from there,” Bertos said.
The Phoenix play the Melbourne Victory at the Westpac Stadium on Sunday at 4:30pm (NZT).
