Brisbane Roar Head Coach Mike Mulvey will wait until the morning before making a decision on Socceroo Matt McKay’s involvement in tomorrow night’s blockbuster against Sydney FC at Suncorp Stadium.
Brisbane Roar Head Coach Mike Mulvey will wait until the morning before making a decision on Socceroo Matt McKay-s involvement in tomorrow night-s blockbuster against Sydney FC at Suncorp Stadium.
After returning from international duties last night, McKay was an onlooker at the Roar-s training session this morning.
“It-s a time thing – we need to have a look tomorrow morning and see how he wakes up,” Mulvey said.
“I-m hopeful but there-s no guarantee.”
McKay played the full ninety minutes for both of the Socceroos- friendlies against France and Canada and if he were to play on Saturday night, it would be McKay-s third match in seven days.
But Mulvey has his fingers crossed that McKay, the former club captain and crowd favourite, will be ready to make his highly anticipated Hyundai A-League return.
“I want him to play and I-m sure the 30,000 who turn out tomorrow night will hope that Matt is going to play,” said Mulvey.
“The bottom line is I didn-t sign Matt Mackay to have him sitting in the stands.”
Star striker Besart Berisha was also hopeful of a Matt McKay return tomorrow night, looking forward to finally playing alongside the midfielder in a Hyundai A-League fixture.
“He is made for our Brisbane Roar style of game and we really hope that he can play tomorrow,” Berisha said.
“When I first came to Brisbane he had just left and I was upset.
“But it-s really good now that he is back. I love football players like him, they are always hungry.”
Whether McKay plays or not, Mulvey said he was excited to see a large and very vocal contingent of Roar supporters at Suncorp Stadium tomorrow night.
“This is Queensland v NSW, we are really looking forward to it and we want all of our fans to come along and make noise tomorrow night,” said Mulvey.
The two sides played a pre-season fixture in Cairns, the Roar coming away with a 4-1 win just four weeks ago, but that result counts for nothing, according to Mulvey.
“The pre-season is the pre-season. You don-t get that true competitive edge until you play that first game,” he said.
“Tomorrow night is the real deal.”
Saturday, 19 October 2013
Brisbane Roar v Sydney FC
Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
Kick-off: 6.45pm local (7:45pm AEDT)
Referee: Peter Green
Assistant Referee 1: David Walsh
Assistant Referee 2: Anton Shchetinin
Fourth Official: Adam Kersey
TV Broadcast: 7.45pm (AEDT) Live and exclusive broadcast on FOX Sports 1HD and Sky Sports 2 (New Zealand).
Radio Broadcast: 7.45pm (AEDT) Live broadcast on ABC 612 Brisbane, ABC Local Radio Queensland, ABC 702 Sydney, ABC Local Radio NSW, Grandstand Digital and Online/Mobile phone app
Join the conversation on Twitter using the hash-tag #GoRoar
To purchase tickets, go to: http://bit.ly/FootballisBack
Brisbane Roar squad: 1. Michael THEO (gk), 2. Matthew SMITH (c), 3. Shane STEFANUTTO, 5. Ivan FRANJIC, 7. Besart BERISHA, 10. HENRIQUE, 11. Liam MILLER, 13. Jade NORTH, 14. Diogo FERREIRA, 15. James DONACHIE, 18. Luke BRATTAN, 19. Jack HINGERT, 29. Matthew ACTON (gk), 22. Thomas BROICH, 23. Dimitri PETRATOS, 26. Corey BROWN, 28. Brandon BORRELLO, 29. Kwame YEBOAH *two to be omitted*
Ins: 14. Diogo FERREIRA, 23. Dimitri PETRATOS
Outs: Nil
Unavailable: George LAMBADARDIS (knee – season)
Sydney FC squad: b1. Ivan NECEVSKI (GK), 2. Seb RYALL, 3. Mark WARREN, 5. Matt JURMAN, 6. Nikola PETKOVIC, 7. Brett EMERTON, 8. Predrag BOJIC, 10. Alessandro DEL PIERO, 11. Richard GARCIA, 14. Mitchell MALLIA, 16. Joel CHIANESE, 19. Nicky CARLE, 20. Vedran JANJETOVIC (GK), 22. Ali ABBAS, 23. Rhyan GRANT, 27. Chris NAUMOFF 28. Matt THOMPSON (one to be omitted)
Ins: 7. Brett EMERTON (return from injury).
Outs: Nil
Unavailable: Terry MCFLYNN (Groin – 2 weeks), Peter TRIANTIS (groin – long term), Terry ANTONIS (thigh – long term), Pascal BOSSCHAART (ankle – long term), Corey GAMEIRO (knee – 3 weeks), (Yairo YAU – international duty), Blake POWELL (youth team duty), Josh MACDONALD (youth team duty)
