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| Melbourne Heart Coach John van 't Schip |
Melbourne Heart boss John van ‘t Schip has confidence in his
side’s first ever final and possibly his last game before returning to Holland.
“I am very confident that we will play a good game,” van ‘t
Schip told the media.
Matt Thompson has overcome a little niggle during the week
to be available but veteran defender Simon Colosimo has not.
“Only one thing that is a blast is that Simon Colosimo is
out. He got an injury, we hope he will be available for the next game but that
is another worry. First we have to make sure we win this game.”
The Dutchman revealed that Colosimo injured his hamstring
during the week and Brendan Hamill is likely to come into the side but van ‘t
Schip has confidence in Hamill and follow defender Curtis Good despite their
young age.
“I am very convinced about
the qualities of Brendan (Hamill) and Curtis (Good).”
“Age doesn’t say anything to me. If I look at the
performance I see all the players also making mistakes in games and I’m not
saying they are not going to make mistakes because everybody makes mistakes but
I am very confident in the way the play, the way they defend, they way they are
physically are on the pitch and yeah they have to deal with an experienced striker
(in Shane Smeltz) but there was other teams that had experience and they lost
to Perth as well.”
Although the 48-year-old also understands that travelling to
Perth to take on the Glory is going to be tough.
“They are a good team, they are strong. They have confidence;
they scored four goals in their last game. I think looking at both teams and I
think they are going to be well prepared and ready for this first final,” van ‘t
Schip said of Perth.
One of the major threats to van ‘t Schip’s defence is Shane
Smeltz, who scored four times against Melbourne Victory last week to become the
A-League’s leading goal scorer with 62 goals, and van ‘t Schip will prep his
defence and pay attention to the 30-year-old.
“Well it’s important, he has showed in the games against us
that he can score, that he can score easy and of course we will talk to our
players of how to defend and he will one of the players who will get more
attention than another player.”
Piece also here
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