Melbourne Victory defender Rody Vargas is expecting Wellington Phoenix to bring an ultra-attacking mindset to Friday night’s critical final round clash at Telstra Dome.
Sunday’s one-all draw with Adelaide has kept alive Wellington’s hopes of dislodging Central Coast from fourth spot on the table, while the second-placed Victory are counting on a win to displace Adelaide United from top spot with one round to play.
Adelaide, away to the Central Coast Mariners on Sunday, are sitting in pole position for the premiership, equal on points with Melbourne but ahead by the narrowest of goal differences – plus-11 to the Victory’s plus-10.
It-s a knife-edge scenario that should make for a fast, open contest between the Victory and Phoenix.
“I think they do (need to come at us), they’ve got a lot to play for, as do we,” Vargas said after training at Gosch’s Paddock on Monday morning.
“The top-two spot is massive for us and Wellington’s had a really good year so they’ll be fighting for a spot too.”
“They’re also relying on results, but just like us, they’re concentrating on winning as well so it’s a big game for both clubs.”
With eight wins from 10 starts at home this season, the Victory will go in confident, but not over-confident according to Vargas.
“We never take it for granted, but we love playing in front of the Telstra Dome crowd, our members and supporters have been fantastic,” Vargas said.
“There’s no better place to play and we really appreciate all the support we get.”
Vargas said the Victory would not be distracted by what’s at stake and that coach Ernie Merrick has been keen to ensure that it’s business as usual around the club this week.
“We try and play attacking football week-in, week-out, Ernie’s very attack-minded,” said Vargas.
“We’re just going to go out there and try and score goals and get three points and worry about our game.”
“If we can win on Friday night we’ll secure a top-two spot and then whatever happens after that is out of our control.”
