Sydney FC defender Simon Colosimo is convinced the fans of his high flying A-League team are more concerned with good results than fancy football.
Currently second on goal difference to fledgling club Gold Coast heading into Sunday’s round-eight game with the Roar in Brisbane Sydney have made a promising start under new coach Vitezslav Lavicka.
One of the few criticisms of Sydney has been their style so far under the Czech coach.
Sydney have scored just nine goals in seven games.
Many pundits were expecting Sydney to produce an attractive style based on a more European type influence, but the Harbour City club have been more gritty than pretty through the first seven rounds.
“We could play beautiful football as you like and there has been this argument about it,” Colosimo said before Sydney training on Friday.
“But if we don’t get results, we won’t have a European coach for long like all the coaches in the past here at Sydney.
“You can play a beautiful brand of football, but if you don’t get results on the board and you don’t make finals and you don’t get those supporters through the gates…
“Ultimately supporters want to see your team winning.
“They want to be cheering, they don’t want to be sitting there saying `yeah, they are playing great, but they are not getting results’, they want to be there on grand final day too.”
Lavicka believed Sydney were getting nearer to the style he wanted.
“The last game, we had close to that,” Lavicka told reporters.
He confirmed Slovak midfielder Karol Kisel would return for Sunday’s game after missing last week’s encounter with a virus.
However, marquee striker John Aloisi didn’t train on Friday and wasn’t expected to return from a knee injury, while Swiss defender Stephan Keller, remained in doubt.
Aloisi didn’t train at all on Friday, while Keller worked separately from his team mates, running laps of the training field.
After a charmed run through the first few rounds where he had almost everyone available, Lavicka was philosophical about having a handful of players injured and three more away on international duty.
“It is a difficult situation, but it’s football,” Lavicka said.
Lavicka and Colosimo will be wary of the many skilful attackers in the Roar side.
Colosimo also expected Brisbane to hit back hard following last week’s home loss to Perth.
“Brisbane are one of those teams that they don’t usual lose two on the trot or play badly in two games in a row, so we are expecting a tough team,” Colosimo said.
“They’ve got some great boys and huge plus for them is having Danny (Tiatto) back, if he does play.
“They’ve probably got four or five boys who can score goals and hurt you, not only team goals but individual goals.”
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