Adelaide United is hoping a rare, full week of preparation has put it in good stead to beat Sydney FC at Hindmarsh Stadium on Saturday night.
Coach Aurelio Vidmar said the Reds, who have lost their past two Hyundai A-League games, should be raring to go given their modified training schedule.
“There was a fine line between giving them a total rest and giving them a little bit of work and some rest so we decided to go down that track,” Vidmar said.
“They had a couple of days off this week and they’ll have a couple more next week and freshen them up even more. When they come on the track they’ll do some quite intense work which will be a little bit shorter … hopefully that works out well.”
“I’m expecting a massive game from the players. They know the situation, they’ve worked really well so hopefully that couple of days rest has given them renewed energy so they can go out there all guns blazing.”
United’s poor record against Sydney FC makes the task of turning around their form all the more challenging.
Since the Hyundai A-League began, the Reds have won just three of 12 games against the Sky Blues and in Round 5 of this season they were thumped 3-0.
Vidmar is unsure why his team struggles against Sydney.
“It’s a hard question to answer. Some teams do have the wood over you and some don’t – it’s like Central Coast at this point in time we just seem to struggle against them,” he said.
“It’s one of those things where we have a close look at it and see where we can adjust, where we can become a little bit stronger and take it from there.”
Vidmar said this Saturday was the ideal time to tackle Sydney FC, given the teams recent form.
“It’s going to be a real interesting game because they’ve come off a couple of poor results as well so in a way we are in the same predicament … it will be like a mini final for both team’s I’d imagine,” he said.
“We’ve lost a couple of Hyundai A-League games on the trot, we don’t want to make it a third, we really need to roll our sleeves up and get the job done.
“They want to play nice looking, a nice type of football – we just need to match it.”
Reds goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic said the players were refreshed and keen to return to form against a quality opposition.
“The last few months have been pretty hectic on the players and I think it has caught up on them in the last couple of weeks but we’ve pretty much had a week off, a week of full training and we are ready for Saturday,” he said.
But he didn’t think the team’s disappointing performances against Sydney in the past would have a bearing on the result.
“Records are there to be broken. We are playing at Hindmarsh – the last time we played them it was over there and at home (before that) was at the (Adelaide) Oval,” he said.
“We are playing Hindmarsh where we are comfortable playing football. We are all concentrating on the Hyundai A-League now and hopefully that gets us three points.”
