Adelaide ready for Wanderers blowback
Oct 12, 2016 - 6:19 AM Adelaide United are braced for a furious reaction from an embarrassed Western Sydney in Friday night's A-League grand final rematch, defender Tarek Elrich says.The Wanderers are smarting from a 4-0 derby loss to Sydney FC in their season opener on Saturday but have little time to dwell on the result as they prepare to take on the Reds at Coopers Stadium.
Elrich, a foundation Western Sydney player, can imagine what the week's been like for Tony Popovic's charges.
"Knowing Popa, having played under him, they're going to come out firing," Elrich told reporters in Adelaide.
"They're probably glad it's a short turnaround.
"It's never good losing in a massive derby, especially by that scoreline, but I'm sure Popovic will have them very revved up and ready for this game.
"Once you come off a big loss like that, the next week you give it your all."
Elrich expects the Wanderers will look to shore up things at the back in response to their heavy defeat to the Sky Blues, in which they conceded all four goals in the second half.
In turn, that'll ask more of Adelaide's new-look attack. Elrich says it is still coming together after some recent additions - including striker Sergi Guardiola, who showed some nice touches in their 1-1 draw with Newcastle last week, and midfielder James Holland, who made his A-League return after seven seasons abroad.
"Their No.1 focus will be their defence, making sure they're solid and working together and not conceding four goals again," Elrich said.
"For us, we haven't had the greatest results in front of goal. We're very well structured defensively but we're just finding our feet in the final third."
Adelaide coach Guillermo Amor doesn't expect the Wanderers will be driven solely by revenge for last season's 3-1 grand final loss.
"Always it's there, but they've changed a lot of players. (Revenge) is more for the people and the coaches but, normally, when you're a professional, you don't think about the past," Amor said.
Source: AAP
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