Brisbane Roar Head Coach Rado Vidosic is confident the club’s five local pre-season fixtures have prepared them well for their upcoming matches against Hyundai A-League opposition, beginning tomorrow night with Newcastle Jets in Tamworth.
Brisbane Roar Head Coach Rado Vidosic is confident the club-s five local pre-season fixtures have prepared them well for their upcoming matches against Hyundai A-League opposition, beginning tomorrow night with Newcastle Jets in Tamworth.
Vidosic, his coaching staff and squad of 16 players will fly to regional New South Wales this afternoon for their match against the Jets – the first of four Hyundai A-League teams the Roar will face before the highly-anticipated Grand Final re-match against Perth Glory on October 7 at Patersons Stadium.
“I-m extremely happy,” he said.
“From a conditioning point of view, we-re way ahead of where we were last year and in previous years.
“From a tactical point of view, we-re still trying to develop new variations and combinations so it-s still a work in progress but tomorrow-s game will serve as an excellent test for these things.”
The Brisbane boss will field his strongest possible team with the players he has available but will have to work around the absences of Thomas Broich, Mitch Nichols, James Meyer and new South Korean recruit Do Dong-Hyun.
All four players are returning from injury and will remain in Brisbane over the weekend.
But Vidosic was also looking at the bigger picture – excited at the prospect of travelling to a part of Australia that has had little exposure to top flight football.
Tamworth is known more so for its love of country music than anything else but ticket sales have been strong and a sizable crowd is expected at Scully Park for the Hyundai A-League match-up.
“It-s great to be able to take our A-League product to smaller towns,” Vidosic said.
“We-re looking forward to it and I think the people of Tamworth will have big expectations of both teams.
“I hope both us and the Jets can put on a good performance so people can enjoy it and start to fall in love with the round ball football, if they haven-t already.”
New Japanese signing Yuji Takahashi arrived in Brisbane this morning and is a late inclusion in the Brisbane Roar squad.
Travelling squad: 1. Michael THEO, 2. Matt SMITH, 3. Shane STEFANUTTO, 4. Matt JURMAN, 6. Erik PAARTALU, 7. Besart BERISHA, 8. Massimo MURDOCCA, 10. HENRIQUE, 11. Ben HALLORAN, 14. Rocky VISCONTE, 18. Luke BRATTAN, 19. Jack HINGERT, 20. Matt ACTON, 24. Nick FITZGERALD, 25. George LAMBADARIDIS, Yuji TAKAHASHI
