John van’t Schip has finalised his side’s preparations for the Club’s inaugural Westfield FFA Cup clash against Sydney FC.
van’t Schip — excited about the Club’s first competitive fixture since the end of the 2013/14 season — emphasied the importance of Melbourne City FC’s own preparations, rather than focusing on Sydney FC’s form, if the Club is to progress in the knock-out competition.
“We will for sure have some changes in the coming months but for tomorrow, we will play in the same formation that we always play.” van’t Schip said.
Melbourne City FC will play its first competitive match at Morshead Park in Ballarat but van’t Schip believes it will be business as usual for the players.
“I don’t think that we as a group are thinking about that… We are very focused on what we are doing and focused on the game tomorrow,” van’t Schip said.
“We already played in England and we’ve been training for two months… We have to deliver and that’s something we talk about, the boys know so it’s a very good test for us on Tuesday.”
Robert Koren will miss Tuesday’s cup tie; however, Damien Duff and David Williams will be available for selection with the latter returning from Foxtel A-League All Stars duties.
“Robi Koren is too far off; he’s not going to play. He’s only had four sessions now and you can see he’s going to be very close to playing but this game came too early,” van’t Schip said.
“David Williams is not a problem, he’s going to train and we’ll just have to see how he feels, how his trip was and if he’s tired and it will be important for the team for him to be involved.
“Damien has progressed really well, he’s the same as Robi Koren, he came in [to the side] after the whole month of June training differently but he caught up with the team really quick and he’s definitely going to be one of the players that’s available for tomorrow.”
Melbourne City FC will be looking to join Adelaide United and Perth Glory as the only A-League sides through to the next round of the FFA Cup.
