Adelaide United is hopeful a review of the Socceroos’ game against Indonesia will unlock the secrets to stopping some of Melbourne Victory’s key players.
Archie Thompson, Danny Allsopp and Tom Pondeljak couldn’t break the deadlock in Wednesday night’s 0-0 contest and the Reds are optimistic they can keep the Victory trio quiet too.
United captain Travis Dodd only watched 20 minutes of the game but believes Adelaide’s coaching staff would have paid much more attention.
“For ‘Viddie’ (coach Aurelio Vidmar) and (assistant coach) Phil (Stubbins) and (specialist coach) Carl (Veart), they’ll have a look at it I’m sure. We have been able to close them down before, we just have to look back at what we’ve done right in those games and do it again,” Dodd said.
Adelaide has already begun preparing for its bogey side with its squad playing a ‘small-sided’ scratch match at Thebarton Oval on Thursday.
South Australia’s sweltering summer conditions may have prompted the modified game but Dodd said the training exercise would definitely be beneficial in preparation for their upcoming clash against the top side.
“It’s nice and competitive, you get lots of touches and it encourages players to shoot which I think we definitely need. That’s what we’ve been lacking in the last few weeks, that killer instinct in front of goals, so these small games encourage players to shoot and have more shots,” he said.
“Melbourne is a good side pressuring; they really come at you quick so to play the small triangles and make sure you’ve got fast feet and make sure you’ve got your passes right and concentrate definitely helps.”
Cassio and Robbie Cornthwaite were notable absentees from the practice match with both players managing injuries. But Lucas Pantelis, who was seen rolling around in agony at the team’s training session on Wednesday, took part.
It was feared the speedy vice-captain had re-injured his knee but an amused Dodd said it was a false alarm.
“Lucas copped a bit of stick from the boys. Yesterday at training it looked like he was shot, he went down squealing like Jonas Salley and then like Lazarus he’s up and ready to go,” he said.
Meanwhile Dodd said Adelaide was ignoring its critics and trying to forget about its poor recent record against Melbourne as it prepares for the February 7 clash.
“People said we hadn’t won at Central Coast in the last game of the season and we went there and did a job so I guess the same has been said about Melbourne, we haven’t beaten them for a while, so I guess we can get one over them in the first final,” he said.
“We’ve played some good football against them especially here in Adelaide when we were leading twice and unfortunately we couldn’t hold on that day.”
“We are confident we can do a job and we can definitely beat them.”
