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Write us off at your peril, says Bleiberg

Roar Guru
4th March, 2011
2

Miron Bleiberg doesn’t care if Gold Coast are seen as outsiders to reach the A-League grand final, but warns doubters his men are oozing confidence heading into Saturday’s showdown with Central Coast.

The colourful coach believes the preliminary final at Gosford’s Bluetongue Stadium will be “one hell of a battle” but has clearly noted the fact most are favouring the Mariners to win through to Sunday week’s grand final against Brisbane.

“I looked at one of the Sydney papers today, there’s not even one soul that predicts Gold Coast is going to win … only the octopus predicts that we will win,” Bleiberg said on Friday.

“But I don’t care because the same people that don’t think we’ll win are the same people that predicted Brisbane Roar would finish in the bottom two and predicted that we will finish nine or eight.

“There are a lot of experts around.

“Maybe Arnie (Mariners coach Graham Arnold) is a very nice guy because he’s got a lot of friends and everybody’s backing him up.

“It doesn’t worry us, we’re going to do our job and whatever happens, happens.”

Bleiberg has good reason to feel positive about his side’s chances after successive finals victories against Melbourne Victory and Adelaide.

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The Mariners, meanwhile, come off a gallant performance but ultimately a loss to the Roar over two legs in the major semi-final.

“Momentum is very important in finals, we come after two wins and the Mariners come after a psychological win, so I think from this point we’ve got the upper hand,” Bleiberg said.

“… I’m the underdog in the eyes of the experts and their dogs but I’m not the underdog in my eyes.

“We don’t feel the underdogs. The whole feeling is we’re oozing and full of confidence and we are in the zone.

“Whatever the other experts, or the octopus, are feeling, that’s not my problem.”

Bleiberg arrived in Sydney on Friday with a full squad at his disposal aside from departing marquee player Jason Culina, who was ruled out of the finals with a knee problem.

The Mariners will be without suspended defender Pedj Bojic, a fact Bleiberg pin-pointed as a major blow.

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Arnold said on Friday striker Matt Simon was still some chance of returning off the bench after sitting out the major semi-final second leg because of a cut suffered walking his dog on the beach.

“Matty’s getting there, it’ll be a match day decision,” Arnold said.

While Arnold and his players have taken plenty of heart from their performance against the Roar, they are not letting their desire for a rematch to cloud their focus on Saturday.

“We’re not even thinking about Brisbane, it’s all about Gold Coast,” Arnold said.

“It’s going to be a very difficult for us but this is our home ground, this is our fortress here at Bluetongue.

“There’s no reason not for us to go in feeling confident.”

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