Veteran Sydney FC captain Steve Corica says his side’s heated rivalry with Adelaide United is alive and well ahead of Sunday’s Round 2 clash at the Sydney Football Stadium.
The Sky Blues upset the Reds in the 2005/06 major semi-final on the way to their way to the inaugural Hyundai A-League Championship, ensuring there is no love lost between the two clubs.
And Corica, who is expected to return to the starting line-up at the expense of Brendan Gan after coming off the bench in the season-opening victory over North Queensland Fury, is expecting yet another fiery encounter this weekend.
“It’s a good fierce rivalry between the two teams and it’ll be no different on Sunday … they’re a great team and we need three points,” Corica said.
“The times that we’ve played Adelaide before they have been good games and obviously the first game (of the season) here at the Sydney Football Stadium, we’re looking forward to a big crowd and it’d be nice to get a win as well.”
While Sydney FC was widely tipped to claim maximum points against the Fury in Round 1, Adelaide’s 1-0 win over a new-look Perth Glory at Hindmarsh Stadium was greeted by surprise in some circles.
But Corica says the Reds merely proved they are once again one of the teams to beat this season.
“I expected them to win … they’re a very good team defensively, they counter-attack quickly as well,” he said.
“We’re obviously in for a hard game here on Sunday so we’ve got to be aware of their strengths and hopefully we can work on trying to get in behind them.”
The 36-year-old identified Adelaide’s defence, led by his former Sydney FC team-mate Iain Fyfe, as their major strength.
But the skipper said producing a more consistent effort remains his side’s main objective.
“Going by last week’s game we played quite well for 30 minutes but we didn’t do it over the 90 minutes and I think we’ve got to work more on that and hopefully we can expand that to 60, even 80 minutes,” he said.
“It’s important that we play well for most of the game not just 30 minutes.”
