Sydney FC coach Vitezslav Lavicka has urged his players to put last week’s blistering performance firmly in the past ahead of Friday’s clash against a desperate Adelaide United at Hindmarsh Stadium.
The Sky Blues showed what they are capable of in their 3-0 demolition of arch-rivals Melbourne Victory, scoring three goals in a four-minute period to sit to points clear on top of the Hyundai A-League ladder after 10 rounds.
But while Lavicka loved what he saw against the Victory, he challenged his men to produce a repeat performance against the Reds.
“Last game in Melbourne was our best performance of the season, I appreciate it because the players played very well,” Lavicka said.
“But in this moment it is in the past, we are going forward and preparing for Friday’s game in Adelaide.”
Asked what pleased him most about his side’s emphatic performance last Friday, the Czech mentor explained: “It’s a mosaic of things in Melbourne we played very effective in attack, especially first half during the couple of minutes we hit the three goals, and in the second half we played compact in defence.”
However, Lavicka pointed to his side’s previous meeting with the Reds which saw only a late Mark Bridge strike separate the two teams, to remind his players of the task at hand.
“Of course we respect them and I think it will be a very difficult game because we remember the first game in Round 2 here in Sydney, it was a very tough game for us, we scored in the last part of the game and we expect (another) tough game,” he said.
In-form defender Simon Colosimo echoed his coach’s sentiments.
“Adelaide are one of the stayers as you would say, they haven’t been playing great but they’re still there or thereabouts,” Colosimo said.
“They are a good team they’re a disciplined team and they play a lot like we do, very disciplined in defence and they work hard at breaking forward and creating good chances.”
In injury news, the Sky Blues will be without defender Stephan Keller for the second straight week as he continues to recover from bone bruising in his left knee suffered in his sickening fall against Central Coast Mariners in Round 9.
