Sydney FC coach Vitezslav Lavicka wants his side to show some killer instinct in Wednesday’s crucial Asian Champions League home game against Kashima Antlers.
The Sky Blues have scored just one game in their first two ACL games, with sole scorer Nicky Carle ruled out of the Sydney Football Stadium encounter with a strained hamstring.
With draws from their two ACL group matches, both at home, and three away games to finish off with, Sydney desperately need a win on Wednesday.
“We have to score more goals,” Lavicka told reporters on Monday.
“I think we showed a good performance against the Chinese team Shanghai Shenhua last Wednesday, we created chances, we had a lot of possession.”
“But I expect especially in the attacking last third we should be more aggressive, to be like true killers in some moments.”
Lavicka conceded the loss of creative Socceroo midfielder Carle represent “trouble” for Sydney, though he was expected to miss just one game after getting injured last week.
‘”It’s difficult to replace the marquee player because Nicky especially the last games of this (A-League) season he’s shown his good quality and he is an important part, especially when we are attacking,” Lavicka said.
“We have to replace him but we have players who are younger than him and less experienced.”
Lavicka confirmed exciting youngster Dimi Petratos was one option to replace Carle, though he is short of recent playing time after being on the injury list.
The Sydney coach said a couple of other players had small medical matters in the lead-up to the game, but wouldn’t divulge their identities.
“That’s only for tactical reasons, because the Japanese team is here in Sydney, so they save their team, we would like to save our team as well,” Lavicka said.
He described Kashima as a typical Japanese team that was dangerous in attack and compact in defence.
The Kashima game is likely to have special resonance for Sydney’s Japanese midfielder Hirofumi Moriyasu, who has established himself as a regular team member there.
Moriyasu played lower level football in Japan and was on the verge of quitting the game until he signed for NSW Premier League club Apia-Leichhardt, where he was spotted by Sydney.
“I never thought last year I’d play a team from my country, because I wasn’t playing and I’m definitely looking forward to playing against a Japanese team,” Moriyasu told reporters.
“I played against their (Kashima) reserve team a couple of years ago and we (College Football Japan) got smashed like 10-0 at that time.
He said he had passed on a couple of pieces of information about Kashima on to Lavicka.
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