Football
Adrian Warren 4y

Corica wary of Ange's full-speed Yokohama

Sydney FC coach Steve Corica is wary of a full-speed Yokohama F Marinos but believes he can exploit Ange Postecoglou's team in his first outing against the former Socceroos' mentor.

The Sky Blues open their Asian Champions League campaign on Wednesday in Yokohama, looking to advance from the group stage for the first time in three seasons.

Corica's club hasn't played for almost three weeks due to two postponements.

They will be up against a Yokohama side, two games into their season and one who thrive on dominating possession and coming hard at opposing teams.

"I'm just hoping we are not a little bit underdone," Corica said.

"We know they will come out full speed ahead and we need to be ready for that from the start of the game.

"They are very much on the front foot all the time but, when we have the ball, we want to take it to them.

"Defensively, we have to be nice and strong and compact because they do have a lot of movement and a lot of pace as well.

"They are a very good team going forward but we believe that we can hurt them with the ball as well and that's what we're going to try and do."

Yokohama play with inverted fullbacks drifting inside and Corica feels that's something his side can capitalise on.

"When everyone is inside, that's the area that maybe we can exploit in the wide areas - if we win the ball quickly and go quickly with the ball, which I think we do at times, with the counter attacks," Corica said.

Corica acknowledged Sydney were in a loaded group.

"We've got the champions of Japan, the champions of (South) Korea, a very good Shanghai SIPG team with (Brazilians) Hulk and Oscar, a great squad with a lot of money put into that," he said.

"We're under no illusions it's going to be another tough group but we're going to do our best to get out of it."

Corica crossed paths with Postecoglou once, at a coaching conference a few months back in Shanghai.

"He's good, he's very thorough in what he he does and very passionate about the way he plays, so we have to make sure we know what we're doing," Corica said.

^ Back to Top ^