Guillermo Amor says his side is prepared both physically and mentally for what they are anticipating as a difficult encounter with Sydney FC this Friday night.
Coming off their first win of the season, Adelaide United Head Coach, Guillermo Amor, and his players are feeling refreshed despite playing through high temperatures last weekend against Perth Glory.
Despite the testing conditions, though, Amor said his side were able to recover with ease and have spent the week fine-tuning their tactics and movements, with the exception of Bruce Kamau who picked up a hamstring injury during training.
“At the moment, Bruce Kamau picked up a problem this week in his hamstring, but the other injuries are the same, (Osama) Malik and Iacopo (La Rocca),” Amor said.
“Tarek is good (after picking up a knock) and is training normal again. During this week he’s rested and today he’s perfect for tomorrow (Friday).
“We’ve had five days to recover and we rested (on Tuesday) this week. The players are now finalising their preparation and over the last two days we have not had any new problems at all.”
Defender, Jordan Elsey, reinforced his boss’s statements, saying that from a personal perspective, he was feeling as good as ever after playing the 90 minutes against Glory especially with the slightly heightened confidence levels floating around the United squad.
“For me, personally, I feel fine (after our last game),” Elsey said. “My legs feel normal and I’m physically feeling good.
“And so is the team because we’d rather this short turn around to play again. We’re 100 per cent ready and as players we just want to play games.
“There’s a few more smiles around the team after the Perth win, I guess, but we’ve always been in high spirits. Maybe there’s a little bit more confidence around the squad, but even through the rough start that we had we were still happy and confident in our ability.”
Looking towards the game on Friday night, Amor said his side is still not completely planned for the match because of how much depth Sydney possess. Either way, though, he is expecting a typically tough fixture, but one they are completely prepared for.
“For us, now, all games are important. Our situation after beating Perth is better than last week, but it’s not much better.
“We need more points and we need to win at home. This is a good test for us (coming off) a win and I know it will be a good match.
“Mentally our players are perfect and we’re only thinking in this game.
“We know Sydney is a strong team and they always have been. All ten teams in the A-League are tough opponents, but you see Sydney’s team and they not only have 11 good players, they have 15, or 16, or 17 very good players.
“Tomorrow we don’t know who will play for them, but we know the game will be difficult.”
Adelaide United will face Sydney FC in Round 10 of the Hyundai A-League 2015/16 season on Friday, 11 December 2015 at Coopers Stadium. Kick-off is at 7.10pm ACDT
