Stuck in off season, Bentleigh Greens coach John Anastasiadis has made sure his team doesn’t lose sight of what’s at stake.

Taking on fellow NPL team Adelaide City on Wednesday for the FFA Cup semi finals, Anastasidis’ boys have been calling Kingston Heath reserve their second home, honing their tactics ahead of the all important match.

Only one grassroots club will remain in the Cup after this match, and Anastasidis is making sure it’ll be the Greens.

Since the fixture announcement, Anastasiadis has been working hard to make sure his boys don’t slack off. The team has played three friendly matches in between structured training sessions to keep their legs ticking over.

“We played Box Hill which we won 1-0, we played Melbourne Victory Youth Team we lost 2-1 and we played Melbourne City’s youth team, and we won 2-0,” Anastasiadis tells Neos Kosmos of the team’s track record.

Two out of three is impressive, but with the knowledge that their opponents managed to knock out A-League club Western Sydney Wanderers, there’s a lot more that needs to be done to get the Greens ready.

Anastasiadis believes the two clubs are equally matched, but that hasn’t stopped him trying to find Adelaide City’s Achilles heel.

“They’re a very good team, they’re quite fast, sharp and they’re pretty much the same as us,” he says about Adelaide City.

“We’ve watched a video of them play and it’s going to be a very even game.”

Former NSL great, Adelaide City does have the pedigree and prestige to make it to the finals, but hasn’t had the same results of late.

City played Adelaide United FC with a 1-1 result and the Adelaide United Youth League team with a 2-0 win in preparation for the Cup match.

About 100 Adelaide fans are also making the trip down to Melbourne to make sure the team feels supported.

Bentleigh Greens’ Anastasiadis feels the home and away factor doesn’t feed much into the result, but does agree the fan atmosphere does make it slightly more special.

“I don’t think home or away is a big advantage, teams now are better prepared, a lot of teams actually do better away, and that was our case a lot this year,” he says.

“The only good thing about that (home advantage) we’re playing in front of our own, our families who wouldn’t see us if we were playing interstate. It’ll be good for them to see what the FFA Cup is all about.”

In their last training session last Monday, Anastasiadis will turn his focus on making sure his team is up for the challenge mentally. Working extremely hard in training, it’s all that’s left to make Bentleigh Greens an impenetrable unit.

“They’ve taken it obviously very seriously, they know what’s at stake,” he says.

“They haven’t given up at all, they’ve really worked hard, this week we’ve had four sessions, they’ve really cranked it up.

“The boys know that they want to get to the next step and hopefully that will come to fruition.”

A bit of extra support from the Melbourne Greek community is also needed, with the coach putting a special call out for fans to come down and cheer on the team.

The quarter final match between Benteligh Greens and Adelaide City will be broadcast live on Foxtel.

Bentleigh Greens vs Adelaide City
Kick-off: 7.30 pm, Wednesday October 29
Kingston Heath Reserve, Farm Road, Cheltenham VIC