Adelaide United defender Bart Vriends has called for a strong response after the Reds’ Australia Cup exit against South Melbourne, acknowledging the side fell below its usual standards in Thursday night’s defeat.
Despite the disappointment, Vriends says the result provides an important lesson for the squad as attention now turns to a crucial AFC Champions League Elite Preliminary clash on August 11, with a place in the group stage on the line.
Vriends on the disappointment of the Australia Cup exit…
“Yeah, obviously extremely disappointed. First of all, credit to South Melbourne. They played a really strong game and they were prepared to push us all around the pitch in one vs one situations.
“We didn’t manage to play through them. I think what mainly went wrong, in an attempt to actually play through them, was that we started running everywhere and trying to find spaces, but it got us very out of structure, especially in the first half, but basically throughout the whole game.
“We’re usually very structured and strong in that sense. That’s what we’re known for, but that went completely wrong last night. Again, credit to South Melbourne, because they did it extremely well, but we’re very, very disappointed with how we showed up.”
Vriends on the challenge posed by South Melbourne…
“They play with their hearts and they go for their one and only chance to beat an A-League side. They deserved the win last night.
“It was a bit of a chaotic game. They pressed us all over the pitch, and we just didn’t have the answer. The problem was that we were just below our normal standards, and that’s extremely disappointing.
“But we’ll take it as a lesson, and it’s still early in the season. Unfortunately, we’re out of the Cup now, but we take it as a lesson to be stronger in the upcoming weeks.”
Vriends on whether the result can be explained by the early stage of pre-season…
“I’m not here to come up with any excuses, to be honest. Even though it’s the early phases of the season and we’ve only started a month ago, we should be able to match them in every part of the game, and even be better in every part of the game.
“They are towards the back end of their season and they’re extremely fit, but we should have stepped up and done better, basically. There’s no excuse for that.”
Vriends on whether the squad needs further recruitment…
“To be honest, that’s not for me to discuss.
“In general, we’ve basically only lost Luka [Jovanovic] and Yaya [Dukuly] so far, and I firmly believe in the strength of the squad as it is right now.
Vriends on whether the ACL Elite Preliminary clash had an impact on motivation…
“Absolutely not. We wanted to go far in the Cup. We actually wanted to win the Cup, which sounds odd right now because we’ve lost in the first round.
“But we strongly believed that we could have gone really far. Last night was just not good enough, and that cost us going out of the Cup.
“But there’s a huge game to play next week, on August 11, which is what we’re focusing on right now. It’s going to be huge. It’s going to be very important for the club, and we’ll make sure that we prepare as much as we can for that specific game.”
Vriends on the opportunity to return to the AFC Champions League Elite stage…
“There’s a lot of excitement. I was so proud and happy that we made it because it’s a brilliant stage for all of our players and for the club as well.
“It’s been a long time, but we really want to make the Elite competition of the Champions League, which is on us right now.
“We’ve got a beautiful home game coming up. We need to regroup and we need to learn from what happened last night, but I’m sure we will be stronger in August.
“Let’s make it a massive game.”
GET YOUR TICKETS NOW TO OUR AFC CHAMPIONS LEAGUE ELITE PRELIMINARY ROUND
