Melbourne City are reeling from a raft of injuries as they head into their FFA Cup quarter-final with Heidelberg United on Tuesday night, a match that the A-League side is all too aware looms as a potential banana skin.
Coach John van ‘t Schip has injury concerns over the likes of centre-back Aaron Hughes, forward Harry Novillo, midfielder Jacob Melling, wide man Ben Garuccio, strikers James Brown and David Williams, full-backs Michael Zullo and Ivan Franjic and forward Corey Gameiro, all of whom will miss out or be touch-and-go for this game, and the season-starter the following week against Sydney FC.
Nevertheless van ‘t Schip will not be using his lengthy injury list as an excuse.
“We still have a lot of players available and we will be playing the team that we have been preparing with at training for the last couple of months. It’s a team we are confident in.
“Some players are very close [for the start of the A-League]. It’s too difficult to predict because they have been out for a long time. Garuccio, Hughes, Melling, Novillo are not going to be there for round one. Others may be ready.”
With a tricky away trip first-up, City are glad they have such a searching test as their last hit-out, the coach says.
“This game is a really good tune-up, a very competitive match and good preparation for the A-League season. A game against Heidelberg is perfect to lead in for the game against Sydney.
“As we know in cup games in general there are always surprises and we have to make sure we are prepared. Everyone expects us to win but that’s logical as we are the A-League team. Even so it’s 11 v 11 and we have to make sure we are there from the start.”
City will do all their pre-game preparation at their City Football Academy base just a couple of kilometres up the road from Heidleberg’s Olympic Village ground, and will head straight back there to do their warm down and recovery rather complete the night at the match venue.
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Van ‘t Schip is expecting a big crowd, swelled by members of the Greek diaspora keen to see former Greek national captain Kostas Katsouranis in action in his one-off appearance for the Bergers.
“I know quite a bit about them. I have seen them two or three times this year in the NPL. The feedback I have got from other people in the [City] technical staff has been good. They were third in the NPL, they are a team that is balanced.
“They have good players up front, they lost their striker [Daniel Heffernan] to Central Coast, but for this special game they have the Greek international Katsouranis, so it’s going to be very interesting. We have prepared ourselves very well for this game.
“I can imagine that the Greek people in Melbourne are very curious to see this player and it will attract more people to the game. It’s certainly not a culture shock to pay at an NPL ground. We have been playing the last few years in all kinds of venues in Melbourne. Recently we played in Oakleigh and Hume, Epping was our own home base for a period of time.”
If the Heidelberg-City game goes to penalties, City keeper Thomas Sorensen won’t have far to look for advice.
Alexander Pavlidis, who works for City’s media department, is also a goalkeeper with NPL Victoria side Pascoe Vale, who knocked Heidelberg out of the NPL finals on penalties. Pavlidis emerged as the hero that day, saving two Heidelberg spot kicks. He will be perfectly placed to give the former Danish international and Premier League keeper advice about the Bergers’ penalty takers.
This clash is the biggest game in years for Heidelberg. One NPL Victoria club, Hume City, based in Broadmeadows, has already made the last four of the competition but it hasn’t had to knock out A-League opposition to do so. Melbourne Victory are also in the semi-finals.
The other semi-finalist will be determined by the result of the quarter-final being played in Perth, where last year’s beaten cup finalists Perth Glory host the Western Sydney Wanderers.
source:theherald.com.au
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