Melbourne Heart FC Head Coach John Aloisi aims to emerge from challenging back-to-back trips to New South Wales with four points, as his side faces Sydney FC at Allianz Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Melbourne Heart FC Head Coach John Aloisi aims to emerge from challenging back-to-back trips to New South Wales with four points, as his side faces Sydney FC at Allianz Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The Red and White registered a valiant effort in Parramatta last Saturday, surfacing with a point in a 1-1 draw at Pirtek Stadium against Western Sydney Wanderers.
But Aloisi is aiming to go one better against Sydney FC, with a win still beckoning for the Melbourne side, and will take confidence from the side-s draw in Round 9 against the Wanderers.
“It gives us a lot of confidence because it’s a difficult place to go,” Aloisi said.
“The Wanderers are a good side, especially at home, you know, with their fans behind them.
“To get any sort of result there is a positive and it gives the boys confidence that we can go to Sydney again… and get a result that we want because we want to start winning, we need to start winning.”
Aloisi said the side had turned a corner in the second half against Adelaide Untied when his side fought from 2-0 down to record a spirited 3-3 draw against Josep Gombau-s side.
“We said two weeks ago the second half against Adelaide showed that we can turn a corner with the performance and the results… and we are hoping to go to Sydney FC now and get another good result.
“We will go there and try and get all three points, we know it-s going to be a tough game because Sydney FC is a good side, especially at home and they have some really good players.”
Frank Farina-s side prevailed 2-0 at AAMI Park over the Red and White earlier in the season and Aloisi recognises the threat the Sky Blues will pose with marquee men Alessandro Del Piero and Brett Emerton expected to return from injury.
Del Piero scored the opener at AAMI from the spot and Aloisi believes his return could lift Farina-s side.
“We-re expecting Del Piero to start, not too sure about Emmo, but you know Del Piero makes a big difference for them; the team seems to lift when he-s out there,” Aloisi said.
“But you have to play against these players in the A-League and we-ll prepare well and make sure we go there and put on a good performance and get the result we want.”
Aloisi said there was extra motivation from the 2-0 loss against Sydney, which he felt was not up to the standard he expected from his players.
“But that night was not good enough so everyone knows we-re going to be up for it this game and we saw against Western Sydney that everyone wants to put things right and we-re going to be out there fighting hard,” Aloisi said.
Captain Harry Kewell featured in his second match last week, coming off the bench against the Wanderers after recovering from injury, and Aloisi expects to give Kewell additional time this week.
“He’s had a better week of training than last week,” Aloisi said.
“Last week he virtually only trained once with us but he was up for the game and we knew we could only give him 20 minutes.
“We’ll see if we start him on Sunday or not but he definitely can’t play 90 minutes.”
Match Details:
Sunday, 15 December 2013
Sydney FC v Melbourne Heart FC:
Allianz Stadium, Sydney
Kick-off: 5:00pm local (5:00pm AEDT)
Referee: Chris Beath
Assistant Referee 1: Sarah Ho
Assistant Referee 2: Leigh Pigram
Fourth Official: Strebre Delovski
TV Broadcast: 4.30pm (AEDT) Live and exclusive broadcast on FOX Sports 1HD.Sky Sport 1 (New Zealand).
Radio Broadcast: ABC Radio Online/Mobile phone app
Join the conversation on Twitter using the hash-tag #SYDvMHT
To purchase tickets visit www.aleague.com.au/tickets
Sydney FC Squad:: 1.Ivan NECEVSKI (go), 2.Seb RYALL, 4.Ranko DESPOTOVIC, 5.Matt JURMAN, 6.Nikola PETKOVIC, 7. Brett EMERTON, 8. Pedj BOJIC, 10. Alessandro DEL PIERO (c), 11.Richard GARCIA, 14.Mitch MALLIA, 15.Terry MCFLYNN, 16.Joel CHIANESE, 19.Nicky CARLE, 20.Vedran JANJETOVIC (go), 21.Yairo YAU, 22.Ali ABBAS, 27.Christopher NAUMOFF, 28.Matt THOMPSON (Two to be omitted)
Ins: 7. Brett EMERTON (return from injury), 10.Alessandro DEL PIERO (c) (return from injury), 14. Mitch MALLIA (promoted),
Outs: Aaron CALVER (return to NYL duty)
Unavailable: Rhyan GRANT (knee – season), Peter TRIANTIS (groin – indefinite), Terry ANTONIS (thigh – indefinite), Tiago Calvano (Suspended – 6 matches)
Melbourne Heart FC Squad: 1. Andrew REDMAYNE (GK), 3. Robbie WIELAERT, 6. Patrick GERHARDT, 7. Iain RAMSAY, 8. Massimo MURDOCCA, 10. Harry KEWELL, 11.Michael MIFSUD, 14. Golgol MEBRAHTU, 15. David WILLIAMS 16. Aziz BEHICH, 17. Jason HOFFMAN, 19. Ben GARUCCIO, 20. Tando VELAPHI (GK), 21. Stefan MAUK, 22. Nick KALMAR, 23. Mate DUGANDZIC, 24. Patrick KISNORBO, 25. Andrea MIGLIORINI (Two to be omitted)
Ins: 23. Mate DUGANDZIC (promoted)
Outs: Nil
Unavailable: 4. Orlando ENGELAAR (Fractured tibia – 6-10 weeks), 9. Dylan MACALLISTER (Hamstring – 1 week), 13. Jonatan GERMANO (Calf – 6 weeks).
