Adelaide United’s Socceroos-bound defence has vowed to blanket Melbourne Victory’s danger men Archie Thompson and Danny Allsopp in Saturday’s Hyundai A-League grand final at the Telstra Dome.
The Reds were blown away by the Victory’s firepower in their semi-final clashes, losing by an aggregate of six goals.
United were wary of Thompson and Allsopp’s attacking brilliance before those games but now know there’s no margin for error with the duo.
Defender Robbie Cornthwaite said his team would be keen to limit their opportunities.
“Danny Allsopp and Archie Thompson are obviously excellent players and I think if we can stop them we can go a long way towards to winning it,” he said.
“They are most dangerous when you give them a bit of space to turn and run at you. So we are going to be following them into all areas, being as tight as possible and making sure we keep their back to the play and their back to the goal.”
“Not allowing them to turn is going to be a crucial part.”
“No team anywhere in the world limits anyone to no shots on goal so they are going to have their chances. As long as we can limit their chances in front of goal we’ll have a good opportunity.”
While keen to forget about Adelaide’s efforts in the semi-final, Cornthwaite said the team had learned from their losses.
“In the first game, without meaning to be, we were a little bit too concentrated on being physical. If we go out and play the football we know we can, that’s going to give us the best opportunity to get the result,” he said.
“Of course they are beatable. They’ve lost this season, obviously we haven’t beaten them, but there’s only been one goal in it on three occasions, so we are quietly confident we can do the job.”
Cornthwaite was also hopeful the cut-throat nature of the final and Adelaide’s hunger to win some silverware would give it a chance of toppling the favourites.
“It will be my first grand final at senior level and I’m looking forward to coming home with a trophy for all the Adelaide United fans,” he said.
“Obviously there’s a lot of talk about how we haven’t beaten them this year. It’s a one-off game and we are pretty confident we can get the result.”
“It’s what you play for and obviously the A-League is our domestic competition. I think that’s the one the fans want to win the most, it means the most to everyone so for me I definitely want to win the A-League and that’s the most important thing.”
