Glory Head Coach Alex Epakis believes that the club’s Members and fans will have a major role to play in Sunday’s Liberty A-League Round 2 clash with Adelaide United at Macedonia Park (kick-off at 4pm, tickets HERE).
The women in purple, who secured an encouraging away draw at Canberra United in Round One, are set to take to the field in Perth for the first time in almost a year having played just once at Macedonia Park last season.
And the Head Coach feels that the homecoming atmosphere will provide his charges with a major lift.
“It’s hard to put it into words,” he said.
“I really believe that the one home game we played at Macedonia Park last season, that late win, there was certainly an element of that which was down to the energy that the crowd was able to create and which our players were able to feed off.
“We’re hoping that the support of the Members and fans will be an important factor.
“I’m excited at a personal level and I know the players are too.”
Glory showed great resolve to twice come from behind to secure a share of the spoils from last weekend’s season-opener, but Epakis feels that his side have plenty more gears to go through.
“The message in training this week has been that we played well enough to get a result last weekend, but we are also very aware of where we can be better,” he said.
“We’re really excited to go and execute that now against another good team in front of our home crowd.
“We believe that if we’re a little bit more focused and tidier in what we’re doing, we can expect a much-improved performance.”
Not that there is any danger of Epakis underestimating an Adelaide side which reached the Finals last season and opened their 2022/23 campaign with an impressive 1-0 home win over Sydney FC.
“Canberra and Adelaide share some similarities in that they both have good attacking players across the front three and they have players who can hurt us in transition moments,” he said.
“But I also believe that one of Adelaide’s strong points over recent seasons has been their physicality all across the field.
“When we played them last year, we spoke about matching their energy and physicality with and without the ball and we have to do that again this week.”
In terms of early team news, meanwhile, Epakis confirmed that no fresh injury concerns had arisen from the Canberra trip.
“We’re all good,” he said.
“If anything, we’re probably hoping to bring one or two players back in this week who will potentially be in contention for the game.”
While Glory have not managed to get the better of the Reds on WA soil since January 2016, the two sides claimed a win apiece from last season’s head-to-head clashes and overall, Perth have enjoyed 13 victories to Adelaide’s seven.
Match Details
Liberty A-League 2022/23 Season Round 2
Perth Glory v Adelaide United
Sunday 27 November 2022 (4pm kick-off)
Macedonia Park
Perth Glory Squad: 1.Morgan AQUINO (gk), 3.Kim CARROLL, 4.Natasha RIGBY (c), 6.Tijan MCKENNA, 7.Liz ANTON, 8.Hana LOWRY, 9.Demi KOULIZAKIS, 10.Susan PHONSONGKHAM, 11.Rylee BAISDEN, 12.Sofia SAKALIS, 13.Sarah CAIN, 15.Cyera HINTZEN, 16.Isabella WALLHEAD, 17.Abbey GREEN, 18.Sadie LAWRENCE, 20.Sarah LANGMAN (gk), 21.Ella MASTRANTONIO, 23.Alana JANCEVSKI, 42.Gabriella COLEMAN
Ins: 6.Tijan MCKENNA, 9.Demi KOULIZAKIS, 18.Sadie LAWRENCE
Outs: None
Unavailable: 22.Claudia MIHOCIC (injured), 24.Milan HAMMOND (injured)
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