Flying high off the back of an incredible Dockerty Cup triumph, the Bentleigh Greens need to get grounded once again as they face a tight four-day turnaround to face A-Leagues Men’s giants Sydney FC in the Australia Cup.
The Greens will host the four-time A-Leagues premiers at Kingston Heath Soccer Complex on Wednesday at 7.30 pm.
Whilst the Greens are in the thick of a taxing run of games, Sydney FC has the opposite problem of still being quite early in pre-season and not having played many games.
Greens coach Nick Tolios masterminded an incredible Dockerty Cup final win on Saturday – a 2-1, come-from-behind win over the Oakleigh Cannons – and he will be testing the depth of his squad limits once against on Wednesday night.
Sydney coach Steve Corica will have watched the Greens Dockerty Cup win with interest as he looks to tighten up his defence that conceded three goals in their Australia Cup Round of 16 win over Central Coast Mariners last week.
The Sky Blues boast plenty of talent, with former Premier League striker Adam Le Fondre leading the line and scoring from the spot last week, whilst Anthony Caceres and Max Burgess were also on the scoresheet.
It took the penalty shootout heroics of Andrew Redmayne to seal the win for Sydney FC against the Mariners, but the A-Leagues Men’s side will be hopeful of a more straightforward cup tie on Wednesday.
They will face, however, a Greens side packed with players ready to prove their worth against the A-League giants.
The likes of Danny Kim, Ben Carrigan, George Lambadaridis, Pierce Clark, Jack Painter-Andrews, Christian Cavallo and Dockerty Cup match-winner Yagoub Mustafa are just some of the player with time at A-League outfits under their belt, and they will be keen to prove that they still have what it takes to mix it with some of the best in the competition.
The Greens have managed to knock out A-League opposition before.
Back in 2018 a Marco Jankovic strike sealed a 1-0 win for the Greens, as they battled bravely with 10 men on the field for more than half a game against the Wellington Phoenix.
The Greens will need every bit of that fighting spirit to prevail against quality opposition in this David v Goliath clash.
Join us at Kingston Heath for another special night of Australia Cup football.