Steve Corica speaks to the media ahead of Saturday’s Semi-Final first leg clash against Adelaide United at Go Media Stadium.
Auckland FC will play host to a second successive A-League semi-final this weekend after the team’s victory on penalties in the Elimination Final last weekend against Melbourne City.
Corica spoke briefly on last weekend’s win, saying it might give the team an upper hand going into the semi-final.
“Playing that week might help us as well, going to extra time also bonds the boys in that sort of situation.”
“They’ve been there, done that, taken some quality penalties as well.” Said Corica.
Auckland will take any edge they can heading into the first leg against an on-form Adelaide United team, having only lost once in their last 15 games.
“Like I said, finals football is very different.” Said Corica.
“They’re a really good attacking team. We’ve had four games against them, they’ve all been really good games, three draws, and I think we won one.”
“We’ve seen a couple of media reports from them that they aren’t scared of anyone.”
“Nor are we.” Said Corica.
Liam Gillion came on in extra time and looked sharp in Auckland’s Elimination Final win after spending most of the season with the Pro League squad.
“The Pro League team has helped him a lot, he wasn’t playing so to get match minutes, the OFC team has come in handy for him, it’s built his confidence back up.” Said Corica.
“You can tell when he comes on now, he’s back to himself, positive, creating opportunities and he set up a goal (against Sydney).”
“He’s got the qualities (to play in the A-League), he’s exciting.”
“But at the end of the day, what he needs to improve on, which he has done in the Pro League, is scoring goals and creating opportunities. It’s good to be exciting, but you also need to have an end product.”
“I think he has that end product.” Said Corica.
Some positive injury news for Corica as Francis de Vries looks to crack back into the side after spending some time on the sideline.
“He’ll (de Vries) be in the squad, it’s good news for us.” Said Corica.
“Callan Elliot’s been doing a great job, obviously last week I thought he was probably Man of the Match, but obviously good to have Francis (de Vries) back.”
Corica gave other updates on the injury front with Nando Pijnaker coming back last weekend and Sam Cosgrove and Jesse Randall playing through injury last weekend.
“Nando (Pijnaker) is still building, so we’ll see how we go at the end of the week.”
He’s (Cosgrove) very good, he’s trained all week. You know he’s got a good pain tolerance.”
“I think he (Cosgrove) got a lot of confidence out of that game as well because he felt he could do it now. He straps it (ankle) up as tight as possible and carries on, which is brave of him.” Said Corica.
“He (Randall) looks a lot better this week than last week, he was a little tender I think last week. This week’s been a good week for him at training.”
“He’s raring to go.” Said Corica.
Grab tickets for Saturday’s Semi-Final and support the team as they aim to take an advantage into the second leg.
