Adelaide United coach Aurelio Vidmar remains unsure which players he’ll take into the Asian Champions League quarter finals despite the pleasing form of some new recruits against Perth Glory at Hindmarsh Stadium on Sunday.
Adelaide United coach Aurelio Vidmar remains unsure which players he’ll take into the Asian Champions League quarter finals despite the pleasing form of some new recruits against Perth Glory at Hindmarsh Stadium on Sunday.
Vidmar, who can take just three overseas players into the second round and has four Brazilians to choose from, has until Wednesday to make a decision.
It could come down to proven track records versus the potential match-winning ability of new talent.
First-year A-League players Cristiano and Alemao had an impact in their debuts for the Reds. Alemao was a cool head in defence while Cristiano set up several scoring opportunities for his team-mates.
In contrast club champion Cassio and playmaker and proven Champions League performer Diego were on the sidelines with calf and hamstring injuries.
Vidmar said it was going to be a tough decision.
“We’ve got a few more days and we’ll have to look how they pull up after tonight’s game but obviously Cassio and Diego are still out injured so we’ll just have to wait and see,” he said.
“You are going to try and pick what you think is going to be the strongest players for the areas that we need and at the end, once the decision is made, it’s made, you can’t change it whatever happens.”
While a selection dilemma lies ahead, Vidmar said he was pleased his side had made a winning start to its A-League campaign.
He said Paul Reid was one of several players that impressed on debut.
“He hasn’t played for six months so it was quite outstanding his performance for the full 90 minutes,” he said.
“I was just keeping an eye on him during the course of the game to see when he was going to start to pull back a bit but he just went from strength to strength.
“They all did pretty well. It’s going to take a couple of more games, there’s no question about that. But I’m confident that once they play a few more games they’ll be fine.”
Meanwhile Travis Dodd justified his selection as full-time captain and celebrated his 100th game with a match-winning goal.
Dodd said he was happy he could perform for his team.
“I guess it was the winning goal tonight so I was pretty pleased about that but in saying that I could’ve had a couple more but I think more importantly we got the three points and we kept a clean sheet,” he said.
“The expectation I put on myself, not so much from the coaching staff or anything like that. It was a big night for me in the 100th and it’s something I tried not to play on too much in the lead up.”
“I just tried to go out there and be a leader.”
