Sydney FC goalkeeper Danny Vukovic says his team is excited at its chance for the first trophy of the season in tonight’s FFA Cup final against Melbourne City.
“The mood’s very good, everyone’s really excited to be playing in a big game. It’s the first silverware on offer for the season, so we’re doing everything we can to be best prepared,” said Vukovic.
While some A-League clubs approach the FFA Cup with lower levels of enthusiasm, Vukovic is well aware of its value – particularly at a club that expects success.
“It’s a massive game. These are the games we play football for, the big occasions… We know there’s a lot riding on it – Sydney hasn’t won a trophy in a long long time and we want to be the group of players to bring silverware to the club”.
Looking to get past Vukovic on Wednesday is a formidable Melbourne City attack including Bruno Fornaroli, Tim Cahill, Bruce Kamau, Fernando Brandan and Luke Brattan, to name but five of the threats from one of the A-League’s most potent sides.
That doesn’t bother Sydney FC or Vukovic, though.
“We’re choosing to focus on ourselves. I think if you single out anyone on their team, you’re probably overlooking someone else. We know that if we do what we do best and play to our ability we’ll do well, so that’s the focus.“
And what Sydney has done best this season is protect their goal. They’ve only conceded three times over eight A-League games – and only once away from home – and Vukovic hasn’t been beaten at all during the cup run.
The Sky Blues most certainly don’t park the bus, though. They’ve kept their opponents well and truly on the back foot through a fast, incisive attack featuring captain Alex Brosque, Milos Ninkovic and Brazilian import Bobô. Indeed, Sydney have scored a league-leading 18 goals.
“It’s certainly been a focus of the way we play,” says Vukovic. “We defend from the front, everyone puts in a massive effort to keep clean sheets and we know with the players we’ve got in our team that if we keep a clean sheet, we’re a very good chance at scoring a goal and winning the game. We work hard defensively and it seems to be paying off at the moment.”
There’s no denying the rivalry between Sydney and the other Melbourne club, Melbourne Victory. Vukovic is fairly relaxed about whether the FFA Cup final will result in two Melbourne teams on Sydney’s list of enemies south of the border.
“For the time being there’s no massive rivalry between the two clubs – apart from the fact we both like to wear sky blue.”
“You never know what can happen on Wednesday night. I’m sure tensions are going to be high, both teams really want to win, so we’ll see what happens.”
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