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Mark Rudan will miss at least the opening two games of the A-League season as he regains match fitness, but the Adelaide United recruit is already challenging his teammates to finally snag an elusive trophy in 2009-10.
The widespread view of Adelaide at the end of last season was they had done extraordinarily well to make the finals of both the Asian Champions League and the A-League, while also battling hard at the Club World Cup in Japan.
Having lost key defensive stopper Sasa Ognenovski for this season, few are predicting anything special from the Hindmarsh Stadium club, with most pundits leaving them out of finals contention.
However Rudan, who ironically scored the goal that knocked United out of the 2005-06 finals series before going on to lift the inaugural A-League trophy with Sydney FC, said his major aim was to lift United out of the bridesmaid’s rut they have developed across five seasons.
“I’d like to think we can go one step further, I had a look at the ins and the outs of the squad this year and there’s been one major loss (Ognenovski) but a few of the other boys, from what I understand, weren’t regulars of the team anyway,” Rudan said on Thursday.
“I’m taken away by the standard of the young boys and their attitude to the game. I think it was their first season last year and they have got to replicate that and hopefully go one step further.
“I’ll do my bit in order to help them get over that first season euphoria and hopefully get their minds on the job and do it again next year.
“They’ve been bridesmaids too many times now.”
Rudan’s fighting words were music to the ears of Reds coach Aurelio Vidmar, who secured the 33-year-old’s signature as much for his attitude as his defensive skills.
Vidmar believes his squad can achieve plenty this season and once again confound the critics who seldom place United among their list of serious contenders.
“A lot of things need to go your way but I certainly think we still have a very strong squad compared to what most pundits have said – they’ve written us off but they’ve been writing us off since year one,” Vidmar said.
“We’ve always seemed to get into the right spots at the right time of the year.”
First up are a Perth side that has strengthened noticeably, adding Englishman Andy Todd in addition to Socceroos Mile Sterjovski and Jacob Burns, both of whom still have ambitions of a 2010 World Cup call-up.
“They’ve been in a position where they haven’t been too successful over four years, they really needed to make a move,” said Vidmar.
“I certainly feel with the squad that they’ve got they are certainly capable of getting into the top three or four without question.”
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