This coming Tuesday will be almost a year to the day that current Heidelberg United player Paul O’Brien playing for his previous club Redlands United, scored the goal which knocked out then reigning A-League champion Adelaide United from the FFA Cup.
His extra-time winner was just the third time an NPL club has knocked out an A-League club. This Tuesday night at Olympic Village the Heidelberg United faithful will gather to find out whether their beloved Bergers can become just the second Victorian NPL club after Green Gully last year to achieve the feat when they come face to face with Perth Glory.
O’Brien, along with team mate Reuben Way, are doubtful at this stage due to injury, while Josh Wilkins was to face a fitness test early on Friday morning. However with a number of players once more available after recovering from injury, Heidelberg coach George Katsakis says, “Come Tuesday we’ll have most of the squad available to us. Should be an interesting time for selection.”
With the Bergers playing three games in seven days, incuding two important league clashes in their bid for the league title, Katsakis is confident he’ll be able to rotate his squad.
The previous occasion Olympic Village hosted an FFA Cup tie against an A-League club was the 2015 quarterfinal against Melbourne City which attracted a crowd of 11,372, the second highest FFA Cup attendance and a record for an NPL club. The Bergers lost 5-0 that day but Katsakis believes he and the players learnt valuable lessons from that first encounter. “We’ve learnt [from] it. There’s certain things we’ll need to be more mindful of. You know the strategy and the way we go into it. That’s not to say we’re going to change much what we do as a team anyway. We’re a free-flowing team which likes to play fairly offensive football and we’ll continue to do that.”
Heidelberg will go into the match as the underdog against a team boasting an abundance of attacking options including Andy Keogh, Adam Taggart, Chris Harold, Mitch Nichols, and one of the A-League’s finest players Diego Castro.
Despite this, Katsakis says, “The pressure’s on them moreso that what it is on us. There’s an expectation on them, obviously they need to get a result and they’ve made that very clear. I mean Kenny Lowe’s interview in the Rd of 32 draw suggests they need to win.
“The FFA Cup for us is massive. It’s instrumental to what’s happened over the last couple of years, since the Melbourne City game. I think that’s been an eye-opener for most clubs especially clubs like South Melbourne that are now trying to replicate what we did on that night. I think it was an eye-opener for most member federation clubs. For us it’s equally as important as that game. We’re obviously treating it very seriously. It was a goal we set ourselves that we want to be amongst the last 32. From the club’s perspective and the board, I think they’re looking forward to the challenge. I’d be surprised if we didn’t get four to five thousand [spectators].”
Kick-off is at 7.30 pm Tuesday 1 August at Olympic Village, Heidelberg.