Brisbane, Tokyo, and a derby - City up for Victory showdown
Coming off a midweek ACLE fixture and already battling a wave of soft tissue injuries, Melbourne City boss Aurelio Vidmar says his unit will be as ready as they can be for Saturday's Melbourne Derby.
Coming off a midweek Asian Champions League Elite fixture and already battling a wave of soft tissue injuries, Melbourne City boss Aurelio Vidmar says his unit will be as ready as they can be for the first Melbourne Derby of the season on Saturday night.
Already without the services of Elbasan Rashani and Samuel Souprayen, City veterans Mat Leckie and Aziz Behich were also lost to hamstring injuries this week – Vidmar describing the former’s ailment as being “low-grade” that would likely to keep him out two to three weeks, while stating the latter was an outside chance for Saturday’s clash with Melbourne Victory but more likely for the Adelaide fixture post-international break.
The loss of these experienced heads, however, didn’t stop City from picking up a major win in Tokyo on Tuesday evening: a youthful outfit holding out to defeat Machida Zelvia 2-1 thanks to a late strike from Andrew Nabbout – making it back-to-back wins for Vidmar’s side in Asia and moving them up into seventh on the Eastern table.
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But the highs of that win have been somewhat dulled by the logistical challenges that have arrived in its aftermath: City not arriving in Australia until late on Wednesday evening, ensuring that after a day off on Thursday, they’ll only get one light session into their legs before they meet Victory.
“We’ll be as ready as we can be,” said Vidmar. “They’ve all had a decent sleep, had a very light training session today, touched on a couple of things for tomorrow’s game, and got back into recovery mode again after training. If they can get another decent sleep tonight, we’ll be as ready as we can be.
“It’s always difficult. We know that, but we’re not using that as an excuse. Our guys’ mentality right through this period has been spot on. We had a very tough trip after Brisbane, leaving at 4:30 am to get to Japan. We left at 3:30 am after the game against Machida to get to the airport to come back home. So we’ve lost a fair bit of quality sleep in that period, but our guys have not complained about it at all.
“They understand what it is and prepare the best way we possibly can to put in a good performance tomorrow night. It’s a derby, so you have to be up for it anyway. We’ll be as fresh as we possibly can be. We’ll make some changes, obviously, like we did on Tuesday night, and try to put the best team out on the pitch to perform well.”
Of course, helping to assuage some of Vidmar’s concerns, both surrounding the latest wave of injuries and the short turnaround, is that, as they did last year, City’s youth brigade is stepping up to show they can be counted.
Led by 19-year-old Max Caputo, youngsters Kavian Rahmani, Beckham Baker, Emin Durakovic, and Harrison Shillington all started in the victory in Tokyo on Tuesday, while Peter Antoniou and Besian Kutleshi both came off the bench. Still just 22 years old, Patrick Beach put in a man-of-the-match performance in the contest and two days later was named in his first Socceroo squad by Tony Popovic.
“We had a very young team on Tuesday,” said the City coach. “Here in the A-League, we don’t come up against opposition like that. They were just so physically strong. Playing a lot of direct balls really challenged us; we were on the back foot, especially in that first half. We had only small moments where we were able to control the game, and we were much, much better in the second half.
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“Those games sometimes, they’re not going to be on your own terms. Some of those games are about hanging in there and finding a way to win. Our mentality is first class; it doesn’t matter what’s happening. We’re just rolling up our sleeves at the moment and trying to get a job done. So everyone who’s come in is not just coming in and getting their name on their shirt. They’ve actually had an impact on the team, and that’s important.”
One more seasoned player who is shaping up to take on a larger role on Saturday is Nabbout, who returned from a year-long ACL absence in City’s draw with Brisbane last week, before popping up with the winner against Zelvia.
“I feel really good,” Nabbout said. “Against Brisbane, I thought I was going to be gassed after two or three sprints, but I felt really good. And then again, against Machida, I felt even better. The more I step out on the pitch and put those kilometres in the tank, I’m just going to be better off for it.”
It’s been a hellacious few years for Nabbout, who has missed over 50 games over the past two campaigns through an achilles tear and subsequent ACL.
And yet, despite this, the veteran has still found his own way of contributing to City during this period – getting around the (many) figures that came in and out of the group last season and also serving as a ‘sheriff’ in charge of the side’s fines during the run to the title.
“It’s been tough. One [injury] after another, it’s not easy,” he said. “I just wanted to be back on the pitch playing football. That’s all I wanted to do. I just felt like I couldn’t get on a roll; getting set back after setback.
“But I’m in the perfect environment to help me thrive and help me through these things. And I’ve got a beautiful family that helps me every day, when I get home, to sort of forget about everything and just roll on to the next day.
“So the environment that I’m in really helps players thrive, whether you’re on the pitch or off it.”