Adelaide United assistant coach Luciano Trani hopes the Reds can keep the momentum rolling heading into Sunday’s clash with Sydney FC and beyond following back-to-back victories.
Adelaide United assistant coach Luciano Trani hopes the Reds can keep the momentum rolling heading into Sunday’s clash with Sydney FC and beyond following back-to-back victories.
After defeating Gold Coast on Sunday 2-1, Adelaide were thrown back into action just four days later on Thursday to compete with Indonesian side Persipura Jayapura for a place in the AFC Champions League.
The Reds won comfortably beating the reigning Indonesian champions 3-0 following goals to Nigel Boogaard, Evgeniy Levchenko and Sergio van Dijk.
The result gave Adelaide consecutive wins for the first time since early January.
Trani, speaking after Thursday’s win where he acted as Adelaide’s official coach – given regular manager John Kosmina does not hold the mandatory A-licence to lead a team in the AFC Champions League – was delighted with the response the Reds gave following a tough week.
“It’s victories in a row now which we haven’t done for a long time, so that will obviously hold us in very good stead for Sunday’s game against Sydney,” Trani said.
“This game was brought upon us 10 days ago so we needed to physically get ourselves up and mentally be prepared to back up after Gold Coast.”
“Knowing that this game was obviously going to make us qualify for the Champions League, we needed to make sure that we won the game.”
“In the end it was (a comfortable performance), but in the first half we had a couple of opportunities to make some of those openings count, but unfortunately we either took a wrong option or wasted too much time setting up a strike on goal.”
Given Adelaide’s spot in the lucrative competition is now confirmed, United’s first group fixture is to take place in just three weeks time against Uzbek side Bunyodkor on March 6.
The Reds will travel to Uzbekistan just five days after entertaining Perth Glory at Hindmarsh Stadium.
With six A-League games remaining and potential finals conflicting with an early run of group games in the AFC Champions League, Adelaide’s resolve could be seriously tested – a notion Trani is well aware of.
“We are now getting to a point in the season where we are testing the players mentally and physically,” Trani said.
“We have a small squad and our resources are really restricted in certain aspects of the club … but we may gain a few extra players which will obviously help the team.”
“For now we just have to manage and get on with it.”
Despite the loss putting an end to Persipura’s long standing fight to be reinstated into the AFC Champions League, coach Jacksen Tiago had ‘no regrets’ about arranging the fixture through the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
“I am proud of the boys as they tried to do their best … we have no regrets,” Tiago said.
“Most of them are now in pain, but that is because they fought until they couldn’t … that was the best we could have done.”
