The fourteenth fixture of Glory’s wide-ranging pre-season campaign will take place at Kogarah’s WIN Jubilee Oval on Sunday when the men in purple tackle A-League rivals Sydney FC.
The fourteenth fixture of Glory’s wide-ranging pre-season campaign will take place at Kogarah’s WIN Jubilee Oval on Sunday when the men in purple tackle A-League rivals Sydney FC.
And defender Scott Jamieson believes that the meeting with his former club will prove to be far and away the most significant of the club’s friendly outings which began with the visit to Kwinana way back in the first week of July.
“We’ve played a number of games,” he said, “including plenty against local amateur sides and in their own right, they’ve been very good.
“But I don’t think you can measure up against them as much as you’d like to.
“Playing against A-League teams is the ideal preparation and we were unfortunate with the weather that we had for the two games against Melbourne Heart, especially down in Mandurah.
“In terms of getting anything out of that second game, we really didn’t take much in terms of tactics or even fitness because the ball was constantly flying out of play or just up in the air blowing around.
“Hopefully the weather will hold up for the Sydney game and we can play some good football because in terms of testing ourselves, it’ll be a really good measure of where we’re at.
“This game represents a great opportunity for us in that sense.”
Sydneysider Jamieson remains close to several of the current Sky Blues squad and with his family and friends promising to attend the Kogarah clash in large numbers, he’s particularly keen to recapture the impressive form that characterised what was his debut season for Glory last term.
“I’m still very close to Rhyan (Grant) and Sebastian (Ryall),” he said, “and my parents and close friends and family all still live in Sydney, so I’ll be looking to catch up with them for breakfast on Sunday.
“But it’ll be all business before then!
“It’s always good to go back, it’s where I was born and raised and it’s still a big part of me.
“And of course it’s nice to play in front of family and friends.
“I know they’ll all be sitting there critiquing me and that gives me that extra little incentive to play well.”
In terms of Sunday’s game at a more general level, the 24-year-old Socceroo is expecting the hosts to provide a stern test and believes that their off-season recruitment drive provides a clear insight into the club’s ambitions for the forthcoming A-League campaign.
“If you look at the players they’ve brought in,” he said, “they are clearly aiming to win the title.
“Obviously you can’t buy the title here in Australia due to the way that the league is structured in terms of the salary cap and so on, but with their recruitment, they are definitely looking to take out the premiership.
“It’s hard to measure how they are going to go from their pre-season form because they’ve had a few injuries and I’m sure neither side will show all its cards in this game.
“But we’ll take them on face value on Sunday, take that experience into when we play them during the season and use it to try and beat them.”
And Jamieson is hoping that Sydney can turn on the kind of pleasant spring weather that has been conspicuous only by its absence here in WA in recent weeks.
“When I was at Sydney FC,” he said, “we actually played Glory at Kogarah in what was Brett Emerton’s first game and if the wind stays away, it’s a fantastic venue for football.
“The forecast is for sunshine which would make a nice change, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed!”
In terms of Glory’s early team news, young defensive duo Matt Davies and Riley Woodcock have not been named in the travelling party, along with Travis Dodd, Isaka Cernak, Ndumba Makeche and Ljubo Milicevic.
Sydney coach Frank Farina, meanwhile, is expected to hand a start to recent signing Nikola Petkovic, with the former Red Star Belgrade defender set to be joined in the Sky Blues squad by newly-appointed club skipper Alessandro Del Piero and off-season recruits Richard Garcia, Pedj Bojic and Corey Gameiro.
Gareth Morgan
