Veteran defender Simon Colosimo is in the selection mix for Melbourne Heart’s first home fixture for the new Hyundai A-League season against Perth Glory on Sunday.
Linked with a move to cross-town rivals Melbourne Victory after losing the club captaincy to new recruit and former Victory star Fred on the eve of the new season, an out-of-sorts Colosimo was overlooked for last Saturday’s opening-round visit to Newcastle.
But van ‘t Schip says the 32-year-old has been working hard to get his fitness and his focus up to scratch.
“Simon’s looking a lot better,” said van ‘t Schip.
“Last weekend he played 30 minutes with the youth team.”
“He’s training this week fully with us and hopefully … if he progresses like he is doing now there’s a chance that he could be with the squad for the game against Perth.”
Van ‘t Schip said he didn’t expect to make too many changes to the side that lost 3-2 to the Jets, the winner conceded in the 94th minute from a deflected cross by Jets defender Byun Sung-Hwan.
“It was very disappointing to lose the game in the last minute in extra time, but that’s part of the game,” said van ‘t Schip.
“You have to concentrate to the end and we were not there at the moment we should be there.”
Van ‘t Schip said he was pleased with the debut of back-up keeper Nikola Roganovic who’s likely to spend the first month of the new season in goal while the club’s No.1 Clint Bolton recovers from a groin injury.
The coach said there was not much Roganovic could have done about the Jets’ winner.
“Losing like that is not nice, especially if you’re making your first appearance,” said van ‘t Schip.
“But we told him, ‘put that behind you, you have that experience now, you know what it means to play A-League and don’t worry about it, we know that you’re a good goalkeeper and you showed it in the VPL (Victorian Premier League)’.”
“It’s very difficult to come in from the VPL and have only a month in training with us.”
“But we don’t have any doubts … he’s a very good goalkeeper, no problems about that.”
