Coach John Kosmina believes the Reds took out what they wanted, and more, from their draw with Brisbane Roar on Sunday.
Coach John Kosmina believes the Reds took out what they wanted, and more, from their draw with Brisbane Roar on Sunday.
The Reds entered the game against the Roar with intentions of playing the way they want to tackle Japanese heavyweights Gamba Osaka at Hindmarsh on Tuesday night in Match Day 2 of the AFC Champions League.
Kosmina is of the view that Brisbane-s style of play is similar to what he expects Gamba to bring to the table, and watching the Reds fight out a 1-1 draw against a Brisbane side that prides itself on high tempo, high pressing football and quick ball movement who enjoy playing out from the back, he was delighted by the performance.
“I got more out of it to be perfectly frank,” a bluntly honest Kosmina said in his assessment of the game.
“I think the way we talked about how we were going to go about things before the game, once the players picked it up it worked really well.”
“There are always things you can improve on but Gamba are a good team, they-ll probably play with a similar style and tempo to Brisbane, so for us it was perfect preparation.”
The 1-1 result against Brisbane shared commonalities with United-s win over Bunyodkor earlier in the week, particularly in defensive discipline and making it difficult for opposition teams to break through. Kosmina said the commitment the players showed against the Roar after backing up from the match in Tashkent was testament to their character.
“Overall I think we defended quite well, it was a really solid performance and when you look at the fact that we flew half way around the world, played a tough game last Tuesday and then had to go to Brisbane where you-ve got a 30 degree temperature turnaround, it was a fantastic effort from the players,” Kosmina said.
Upon the squad-s arrival back in Adelaide, which ended a week that saw them fly from Adelaide to Sydney to Bangkok en route to Tashkent, back again along the same route and then to Brisbane and back, Kosmina was not going to start complaining about the heavy travel schedule. The former Socceroo, who is no stranger to long trips back in his days in the national team, conceded the long flights and short turnarounds were not ideal but are something teams just have to deal with if they want to compete in the AFC Champions League.
“It-s always going to be difficult to recover but the fact is you can-t change it…it-s the way it is. Are you going to pick up Australia and move it closer to the rest of the world – it doesn-t work that way,” Kosmina said.
“In Europe teams play Champions League on a Tuesday and Wednesday night and then back up on the weekend, so at this level you should be able to play two games a week.
“I know London to Germany is not as far but there is still travel involved and that-s part and parcel of football in this part of the world.”
Moving onto team news, Kosmina said captain Eugene Galekovic was a strong chance to return from his ankle soreness for the match against the Central Coast Mariners on Saturday, while he stated there was no guarantee Sergio van Dijk would receive an automatic recall back into the starting eleven after he also missed the Roar match.
“I-d imagine Eugene will be back and I think Bruce (Djite) did a good job so Serge has got his work cut out,” Kosmina said.
