It’s finally here…
After years of negotiation and planning and months of build-up, Glory’s glamour friendly with EPL giants Chelsea is finally upon us.
As promised, the FA Cup holders have brought a strong squad over, including the likes of Alvaro Morata, David Luiz, Cesc Fabregas and new, $90 million signing Jorginho.
But while the club’s budgets may be a world apart, Glory have also been assembling a strong, new-look squad in recent months and several of the off-season recruits are set to feature against the Blues.
Fabio Ferreira, Ivan Franjic, Tando Velaphi and Brendon Santalab are all expected to play some part in the game and there is also a chance that Jason Davidson and Spanish signing Juande may make their club debuts.
In addition, a number of the club’s exciting youngsters are likely to be handed a run-out and Football Director Jacob Burns revealed that they are particularly relishing the prospect of taking on some of the best players in the world.
“There’s a great sense of excitement within the whole group,” he said, “but especially among the younger guys.
“It’ll be the biggest crowd and biggest stadium that they’ve experienced and I’m sure it will be an event that they cherish and remember.
“All the players have been working exceptionally hard since pre-season started and this game is another important part of our preparation for the new season, including our FFA Cup game against Melbourne Victory early next month.
“It promises to be a fantastic event not only for our club and this state, but for Australian football in general and we’re all really looking forward to it.”
The Glory squad for tonight is as follows: 1.Tando VELAPHI (GK), 2.Alex GRANT, 3.Jason DAVIDSON, 4.Shane LOWRY, 5.Ivan FRANJIC, 6.Dino DJULBIC, 7.Joel CHIANESE, 8.Neil KILKENNY, 9.Andy KEOGH (c), 11.Brendon SANTALAB, 12.Henry HORE, 14.Chris HAROLD, 15.Brandon WILSON, 17.Diego CASTRO, 18.Daniel STYNES, 19.Joe KNOWLES, 20.Jake BRIMMER, 21.Jacob ITALIANO, 22.Fabio FERREIRA, 23.Scott NEVILLE, 24.Callum TIMMINS, 25.Walter SCOTT, 26.Yagoub MUSTAFA, 27.JUANDE, 30.Jackson LEE (GK), 33.Liam REDDY (GK)
Kick-off time at Optus Stadium is 7.30pm and tickets are available HERE.
#OneGlory
