Wednesday night can’t come soon enough for Hume City as it prepares for the biggest match in the club’s history.
City will take on reigning A-League premiers Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park on Wednesday night for the chance to play Perth Glory in the FFA Cup final.
City coach Louie Acevski said his side was ready for the match, which comes five weeks after its quarter final win in the nationwide tournament.
“The boys have been training hard and there are a lot of smiles on their faces,” Acevski said. “It’s a challenge which we’re looking forward to. We’ve upped the ante and are going to give it a go and see where it takes us.”
City will have to take on Victory without a star marquee player after failed attempts to get a superstar to the club for the match.
Brazilian Ronaldinho, Turkey’s Arda Turan, French striker David Trezeguet and Greek international Giorgios Karagounis were among the players City spoke to.
“There was a lot of back and forth communication and time was running out. We set a deadline of 9am on Thursday to get the deal done,” Acevski said. “But it wasn’t going to happen … there was too much red tape.
“So if we make the final it will be with the boys who have played all year, and they deserve to play.”
The City players are so dedicated to the cause that they are still training hard despite being halfway through what should be the offseason.
“Normally we would be six weeks into the offseason,” Acevski said. “And they won’t get much of a break as we’ll be back in training in December but I’m sure any club would want to be in our position.”
Acevski said the five-week break between competitive games wasn’t ideal. The last game of any sort City played was a practice match against A-League side Melbourne City, which they won 2-0.
“It’s hard not having official games, so any game we can get is a bonus,” Acevski said.
Acevski is expecting a high-intensity game against Melbourne Victory.
“We had a decent look at them [in practice matches] and it will be difficult to stay with the same intensity as them for 90 minutes or longer,” he said.
City is expecting a crowd of more than 10,000 at the match.
