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Sydney FC have vowed to quickly shake off the disappointment of their A-League major semi-final loss to Melbourne and salvage a grand final berth against Wellington Phoenix on Saturday.
Sydney were left shattered after an extra-time winner to Archie Thompson gave the Victory a 4-3 aggregate win after the second leg of the tie at the Sydney Football Stadium on Sunday.
The result saw Melbourne earn the right to host the grand final in a fortnight, while Sydney must now return to their home ground on Saturday for a preliminary final clash with Wellington Phoenix.
The winner of that match will take on the Victory in the decider at Etihad Stadium on Saturday week and Sydney FC captain John Aloisi said his side would have no problems picking themselves up to face Wellington.
“Everyone is probably even hungrier now to win next week,” Aloisi said.
“We’ve got no problem at all picking ourselves up, because we want to win badly.
“I think we had most of the play (tonight) and we were on top of them most of the time, but they’ve got good players going forward … maybe we could have gone on with it … but it wasn’t to be.”
Aloisi said his side were wary of the Phoenix, who progressed earlier on Sunday with a 3-1 extra-time win over Newcastle in front of more than 32,000 fans at Westpac Stadium.
“I think that they’re a dangerous team that have good players all around the park but so do we, so we just have to make sure we play our own game,” Aloisi said.
The sky blues could be without Alex Brosque for the match after he limped off in extra time with what looked a hamstring injury, but coach Vitezslav Lavicka was hopeful it was only cramp.
The Czech coach said defender Shannon Cole (hamstring) was also in doubt after he was ruled out of Sunday’s match and replaced by Sebastian Ryall.
The sky blues were disappointed by a refereeing decision that led to Thompson’s winner, with a free kick awarded against Terry McFlynn for handball, when it appeared to hit his head.
Victory coach Ernie Merrick was also keen to vent his anger at the officialdom, angry at several calls of his players being offside when replays showed they weren’t.
“How they can’t get it right, I’ll never understand because the assistant referees are supposed to give the benefit of the doubt to the strikers if they’re in line,” Merrick said.
“How can they happen in a semi-final in such a crucial game?
“How can that continue to happen and the same linesmen rock up and make decisions like that. It’s so disappointing.”
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