Adelaide United coach John Kosmina is refusing to give up on the Hyundai A-League season despite the Reds sitting in ninth place and eight points shy of a finals spot.
Adelaide United coach John Kosmina is refusing to give up on the Hyundai A-League season despite the Reds sitting in ninth place and eight points shy of a finals spot.
Despite suffering a 2-1 home defeat to Sydney FC two weeks ago Adelaide still had a faint chance of finishing in the top six with victory over fellow finals contenders Newcastle Jets.
However the Reds were downed one nil as the Jets held onto sixth and put a nail in the coffin of the SA side’s dismal season.
Despite the loss Kosmina reaffirmed his belief that his side could salvage a finals berth despite Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory also being in the hunt.
The former Sydney FC coach further backed up his claims when he spoke on Wednesday, preferring to focus on the Hyundai A-League rather than thinking ahead to the beginning of the Reds’ AFC Champions League campaign next Tuesday.
“The A-League is not gone … there are four games left to win and we have to try and win them,” Kosmina said.
“We spoke about our chances and it’s important that we do win these remaining games.”
“We need to win at home, for our supporters, owners and ourselves individually and as a group.”
“I’m thinking about the Perth game and trying to get a result in that and not ahead to Bunyodkor (Adelaide’s first ACL group stage opponent).”
With Adelaide seemingly cruising and on track to revive their early season stutters with a finish in the top six, their chances took a major blow in week 16 with a loss to competition front runners Central Coast Mariners and draw to Newcastle.
This was followed by back-to-back home losses as the Reds’ finals charge was derailed.
Kosmina said his team were left to rue a series of mistakes and misfortune.
“You get punished for mistakes, a lot of times you get away with them, but we make one and we get punished for it,” Kosmina said.
“Every week we make a mistake that hurts us but maybe that’s just the space we are in at the moment.”
“You make our own luck and that means we need a little bit more good intention and hard work.”
“I know’ hard work’ is an easy thing to fall back on but you need to go out and have a serious go from right down deep inside … then you’ll get something out of it.”
With sights set firmly on the A-League, Adelaide will prepare for a physical encounter with Perth Glory on Thursday, who travelled to Hindmarsh Stadium barely a month ago and came away with all three points following a comprehensive 3-0 victory.
The Glory are fourth and have the opportunity to momentarily leap frog the Wellington Phoenix in third for a home final.
Kosmina expects a fierce Glory but is confident his side, who regain Daniel Mullen and Antony Golec from the Australian Under 23s, have enough power to match the Western Australians.
“They are a physical side, have physical players and rely on their physicality – that’s a part of their arsenal” Kosmina said.
“But we have some fairly physical players in our group as well … Ozzie (Osama Malik) as slight as he is, can get in a good 50-50 situation and come out winning, Serge (Sergio van Dijk) is strong, Bruce (Djite) is strong and we have a fairly big back four who can all compete well physically.”
Former Reds captain Travis Dodd will return to Adelaide for the first time since his controversial departure last season.
“Travis plays for Perth now so he’s an opponent and we have got to be aware of the good things and qualities he’s got – his pace, experience and the fact he might be trying to prove a point against us,” Kosmina said.
“He might have a point to prove but that’s not what we have to think about. We need to think about proving our own point.”
