Newcastle Jets coach Gary van Egmond has said his team will be using the Socceroos style as a ‘role model’ for its Asian Champions League fixture against J-League giants Nagoya Grampus on Tuesday night.
Newcastle will be looking to snatch a point or better when it lines up against the Group E favourites on their home turf and Van Egmond said the national team’s excellent performance in the World Cup qualification matches has given the Jets plenty of information how to play in Asia.
“We have got a role model in what the Australian team did in Sydney and what the Socceroos have done when they have played in Asia,” he said.
“I definitively think you can take some positives out of it and I think you can learn from it as well in how they set things up.”
“At half-time in their game most pundits had us not doing too well, but it is about being patient and I think that is a key thing for us in Japan.”
“As (Guus) Hiddink said: ‘You can lose the game in the first 30 minutes but you can’t win it’ and it is very true statement.”
The Newcastle boss also said Beijing’s away draw with Nagoya in Japan had added confidence to the Jets team for Tuesday’s match.
“At the end of the day Beijing was probably unlucky not to win the game,” van Egmond said.
“They hit the post in the last 20 minutes when they had a bit of a go at Nagoya and that is something we can take heart from because we feel we well and truly matched Beijing except in the first 20 minutes when we were a bit all over the place.”
“So the confidence of how we played against Beijing and Ulsan and the experiences that we have already had in playing away and playing at home against quality opposition has put us in a lot better stead to understand what we will come up against in Japan.”
The Jets will go into the match without the services of Italian playmaker Fabio Vignaroli who injured his hamstring at training last week but van Egmond said he was confident the depth of the squad will cover the loss.
“Through necessity we had to put a lot of players in different positions and to their credit they have risen to the challenge and learnt how to play those positions so now we have got that flexibility,” he said.
“It is credit to some of the players that they have this versatility and that only comes about by being technically good and having physical characteristics that can play different positions.”
“So now it (the loss of Vignaroli) gives someone else an opportunity and with that they can take it with both hands and really go on with it.”
