Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold wants his newly minted Premiership winners to maintain their incredible momentum and power on to the Hyundai A-League Grand Final.
Brisbane Roar’s win over Melbourne Victory on Saturday night handed the Premiers Plate to the Sky Blues.
Ruthless Sky Blues too strong for Glory
Arnold says the celebrations were very low-key as his side prepared for their Hyundai A-League clash with Glory in Perth, which they subsequently won 3-0.
“I had to get them out of their seats when they were eating dinner to congratulate each other because they only wanted to win today,” said Arnold.
“They shook each other’s hands, congratulated each other and straight away Alex Brosque said, ‘Tomorrow we win’.”
“It was a wonderful achievement by the players and the staff and the club to win the Premiership with four rounds to go and for me it was about attitude today.
“We flew over here [to Perth] with the mentality that no matter what’s put in front of us, we’re going to win and we will win.
“”I thought our performance was excellent and we totally dominated them,” he said.
BEST A-LEAGUE SIDE EVER?
“We embrace it – it’s much better than being called the worst team ever.
“We’ve now made history – 59 points in a ten-team competition.
“We’ve got three games to go; Brisbane Roar in an 11-team competition got 65, so we’ll chase that.
“I think we’re level now with the most wins ever in the history of Australian football with 18 and [we’ve got] the most clean sheets ever.
“We’re striving every week to break more records and that’s the motivation until the Finals Series.
“We’ve got Melbourne City on Saturday and we will make a statement against them at home.”
MOTIVATION FOR REST OF SEASON
“With this group of players, it’s no challenge; I don’t know why you would think that.
“If you look at the attitude and the commitment and the will from my players and you’ve got a leader like Alex Brosque out there, there’ll be no chance anyone drops off.
“If someone drops off on the pitch and thinks they can take their foot off the pedal, they’ll find themselves on the bench pretty quickly.
“Every player wants to play at the end of the season in the big games and they could miss out.”
