Melbourne Heart FC may feel the absence of its Olyroos Aziz Behich, Mate Dugandzic and Jason Hoffman, but vice-captain Matt Thompson is confident the side has the depth to cover their loss.
Melbourne Heart FC may feel the absence of its Olyroos Aziz Behich, Mate Dugandzic and Jason Hoffman, but vice-captain Matt Thompson is confident the side has the depth to cover their loss.
The trio will miss the next two weeks of Hyundai A-League action as they help Aurelio Vidmar-s side on its quest to clinch a berth at the London Olympics in 2012.
While Thompson admitted the team will keenly miss their influence, the four-time Socceroo has faith in the depth of the Heart squad.
“The good thing about it, looking at three who miss out, we have Simon coming back, Curtis coming back, and Sarkies is in contention, Eli played his first game over the weekend,” he said.
“Yes, we are losing some a lot of good players, but we also have a few players coming back who are starters in a number of other teams. It-s nothing we have to worry about, we have a strong squad.”
Another player in contention for selection is Dutch winger Rutger Worm.
The 25-year-old netted the opener in Heart-s 3-1 NYL win over the Newcastle Jets on Sunday, and is poised to play a role at Skilled Park, given the injury to Alex Terra, who remains sidelined for up to a fortnight with a hamstring strain.
While a win on Friday will catapult Heart to third on the Hyundai A-League table, Thompson isn-t getting carried away.
“It was a good result on the weekend, but we-re still sitting towards the bottom of the ladder, so we need to win as many games as we can, like any team, our mentality won-t change,” he said.
“We-ve been saying for the last couple of weeks we-re a win away from having a decent start. Take away the last minute goal against Newcastle in the first game, and we-re not playing too badly and are difficult to beat.”
