Michael Matricciani is eying three points at home against Perth Glory in his first A-Leagues match in charge.
City commence their Premiers Plate defence when they host the Glory in Round 1 of the Ninja A-League Women’s competition this Sunday 3 November at the ctrl:cyber Pitch.
PURCHASE YOUR TICKET TO SUNDAY’S MATCH
Read the Head Coach’s pre-match thoughts below…
EXCITED FOR ROUND 1
“I think training has been excellent this week, the girls are a great bunch, we’ve got a lot of leadership, a lot of quality amongst the group. There’s a few selection headaches for me which is excellent, but everyone is fighting for their spot and we’re looking forward to Sunday.
“We’ve got some big goals internally that we want to achieve, and I think leading into Round 1 there’s always that buzz and excitement. For me personally, my first match in the A-League, so looking forward to that and being at home, we want to make sure we entertain and win some football matches.”
CARRYING THE MOMENTUM
“It was an excellent pre-season, to be able to go away for 12 days and spend time together, and play competitive matches.
“It was an exciting time being in the Asian Champions League, but more so, being away as a group for me as a new coach, getting to know the new players and integrating the six new ones that we had at that stage – it was a really invaluable pre-season camp you could say, leading into this week.”
LEADING FROM THE FRONT
“Stotty was a clear standout, she was the Captain last year as well. She’s been a great support personally ever since I signed for the Club, on and off the pitch, so that was a clear leader that would continue.
“With the leadership group, Taylor [Otto], Mini [Rhianna Pollicina] and Bubs [Melissa Barbieri], that was voted by the players. The players decided that and I think they decided very well.”
HARVEY’S HERE
“She’s [Kathryn Harvey] actually for the first time, made the big trip to Aus… you never quite know how long a player is going to take to settle in but within the first few days she recovered really well, got into good sleep patterns, been training great the last few days so she’s putting her name up for selection.
“She’ll be part of the match day squad, how many minutes she’s going to be able to play we’re yet to determine. So far, she’s looking good and ready to go, and it’s another valuable player in our attack that can score some goals for us.”
