Melbourne Heart FC Head Coach John Aloisi will approach his side’s tricky road trip to Hindmarsh Stadium with a measure of caution and optimism.
Melbourne Heart FC Head Coach John Aloisi will approach his side-s tricky road trip to Hindmarsh Stadium with a measure of caution and optimism as Heart seeks the scalp of high-flying Adelaide United tomorrow evening.
On the back of a clinical performance against Brisbane Roar last Friday, Aloisi is confident Heart can continue its momentum into the round seven showdown, but is wary of United-s strong showing so far this season.
The Reds have lost just one match in six and are unbeaten at Hindmarsh – form Aloisi attributes to Adelaide’s off-season activity.
“They-ve had a really good start,” Aloisi said.
“We were expecting that because they also had the Asian Champions League and they had a longer pre-season than everyone else.
“We knew that they were going to be match-hardened, but they-ve [also] got some really good players, especially going forward.
“I think [Dario] Vidosic, Jeronimo [Neumann] and [Marcelo] Carrusca are dangerous and we have to watch out for them.”
But while Aloisi acknowledged United-s potential, the Heart coach spoke of his side-s optimism heading into the match on the back of last week-s positive result against the Roar.
“We-re looking forward to it; we-ve had another good week on the training pitch and the boys are confident, especially after the 4-1 win against Brisbane and we can-t wait for the game in Adelaide and hopefully we can get another win,” Aloisi said.
“We know that if we play well we can come away with a win and good result.
“We weren’t playing too badly, we were probably just lacking that cutting edge in front of goal in the last few games, but against Brisbane we had that and so it gives the boys confidence in front of goals that we can hurt teams.”
While Fred will remain sidelined with a hamstring injury, Aloisi had a slight scare this morning as Clint Bolton and Simon Colosimo clashed heads during training, illustrating the side’s eagerness heading into tomorrow’s game.
“The good thing about that was that they were very focussed on what they were doing,” Aloisi said.
“Clint-s a big boy; he won-t let that affect him, just a couple of stitches and he-ll be right for tomorrow.
“Fred trained with us yesterday and looked good, we-re giving him another week to make sure he has a full week [training] with the team and he should be right for selection next week.”
Heart’s National Youth League take on Adelaide in a unique double header before the Hyundai A-League fixture from 2.15pm tomorrow afternoon.
Saturday, 17 November 2012
Adelaide United v Melbourne Heart
Venue: Hindmarsh Stadium
Kick off: 5:00 PM Local 5:30 PM AEDT
Referee: Ben Williams
Assistant Ref 1: Paul Cetrangolo
Assistant Ref 2: Daniel Goodwin
Fourth official: Rick Schneider
Live and exclusive broadcast on FOX Sports 1HD and Sky Sports 2.
Radio broadcast: 891 & ABC Local Radio South Australia, Online, Grandstand Digital Melbourne.
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Adelaide United squad: 1.Eugene Galekovic (gk) (c), 2.Osama Malik, 3.Nigel Boogaard, 5.Iain Fyfe, 6.Cassio, 8.Marcelo Carrusca, 9.Sergio van Dijk, 10.Dario Vidosic, 11.Bruce Djite, 12.Antony Golec, 14.Cameron Watson, 16.Daniel Bowles, 17.Iain Ramsay, 21.Jeronimo Neumann, 22.Fabio Ferreira, 23.Evan Kostopoulos, 30.John Hall (gk)
(Two to be omitted)
Ins: Sergio van Dijk (promoted), Antony Golec (returns from injury)
Outs: Nil
Unavailable: Jon McKain (leg – under review), Paul Izzo (gk) (International duty – Qantas Young Socceroos)
Melbourne Heart squad: 1. Clint Bolton (GK), 2. Michael Marrone, 4. Simon Colosimo, 6. Patrick Gerhardt, 8. Matthew Thompson, 9. Dylan Macallister, 10. Josip Tadic,11. Richard Garcia, 15. David Williams, 16. Aziz Behich, 17. Jason Hoffman, 20. Andrew Redmayne (GK), , 22. Nick Kalmar, 23. Mate Dugandzic, 24. Sam Mitchinson
Ins: Nil
Outs: 5. FRED (c) (hamstring – one week), 13. Jonatan Germano (Fitness – undisclosed), 14. Golgol Mebrahtu, 18. David Vrankovic (International duty – Qantas Young Socceroos), 19. Ben Garuccio (International duty – Qantas Young Socceroos), 21. Steven Gray (knee – one week)
Unavailable: 31. Vince Grella
