Dario Vidosic is confident the Reds can take their winning form over Gold Coast into the club’s two crunch matches in the next seven days.
Off the back of Adelaide United-s valuable three points over Gold Coast United, attacking midfielder Dario Vidosic is confident the Reds can take this winning form into the club-s two crunch matches in the next seven days.
Vidosic, who scored the winner at Skilled Park yesterday to give the Reds their first victory in seven games, arrived home with the rest of United-s squad this afternoon to start preparing for Thursday-s one-off AFC Champions League 2012 qualifier against Indonesia- Persipura Jayapura at Hindmarsh Stadium.
Following the clash with Persipura, Adelaide United will then host Sydney FC at Hindmarsh on Sunday in what is a huge Hyundai A-League encounter in the context of the Reds- top six aspirations.
Delighted to return from the Gold Coast with three points in the bag, a buoyant Vidosic says the result has given the Reds a renewed spring in their step and is something that has them well poised for their two important upcoming matches.
“It-s always good to get the three points and it probably wasn-t one of our best displays in the past few weeks, but it-s a funny sport,” Vidosic reflected on the win over Gold Coast.
“That-s the thing you need, that when you don-t play well you still need to win, so we got that and now we-ve got a game against Persipura on Thursday so we-re looking forward to that and then Sydney on Sunday.”
With experience playing for the Qantas Socceroos, Vidosic is no stranger to the big stage and he is fully aware of what is on the line for the Reds against Persipura on Thursday night.
Regardless of the issues surrounding the matters involving the Reds needing to play the AFC Champions League qualifier, Vidosic states the players are approaching the clash with Persipura with a do-or-die mentality.
“We look forward to it. Sometimes it-s a good thing playing games, you-re focused all week and we-ve got a very different challenge on Thursday with the AFC Champions League qualifier, we know it-s a must win and we want to wrap it up in 90 minutes,” Vidosic said.
“Then we look forward to Sunday against Sydney, we had a good result away against them and now we want to get the three points.”
While being required to again play a stretch of three games in eight days could be seen as a tall order, Vidosic says playing games is what football is all about and he is sure the Reds will relish the challenge, particularly with the next two games both being in front of a parochial home crowd at Hindmarsh.
“At the end it-s just a football game and that-s what we love to do and we-re looking forward to hopefully coming out in front of a packed Hindmarsh,” Vidosic said.
“For plenty of us it will be the first AFC Champions League game we-ve played and we-ll make sure we go out and do the job.”
Despite being forced to juggle an AFC Champions League qualifier and a Hyundai A-League game in quick succession, Vidosic does not believe there will be any problems getting up for them and that there is no shortage of incentive to win.
“We kind of feel that it-s our spot that they (Persipura) want to take away from us and there-s no chance we-ll let them come here and take our spot, that-s for sure,” Vidosic said.
“You want to treat every game like it-s a Champions League Final, and especially with six rounds to go (in the Hyundai A-League), we want to win as many as possible and push for the top six and we won-t give up until it-s impossible to make it.”
