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Roar coach Ross Aloisi says there will be ‘no pressure’ on his players in Saturday night’s Australia Cup final against Sydney FC as they attempt to give a heartbroken Brisbane sporting public something to smile about.
Aloisi hopes it will be a case of third-time lucky for a Brisbane team in the decider of a national competition following the narrow losses suffered last weekend by the Lions and the Broncos in the AFL and NRL grand finals respectively.
‘The two games that the Brisbane teams lost, they showed a real fighting spirit despite losing, and we will show that sane spirit,’ the Roar mentor said ahead of the Cup final at Allianz Stadium.
‘There’s a lot of Queenslanders in the team, and both them and the non-Queenslanders in the team understand what it means to have a Queensland fighting spirit, and hopefully with our performance we can make the all Queenslanders proud, and with their support, we can get over the line.’
Roar coach Ross Aloisi and Tom Aldred are hoping to deliver the Australia Cup Trophy to the people of Brisbane
It comes after rugby league fans were left gutted as the Brisbane Broncos surrendered a 16-point lead to lose the NRL grand final
Sport fans in Brisbane had earlier been left stunned when the Brisbane Lions lost the AFL grand final in a thriller against Collingwood
Aloisi, set to embark on his first A-League season in charge of Brisbane, said the Roar – who haven’t lifted any silverware since 2014 – were happy to be underdogs against a Sydney side that was ‘expected’ to be in the final.
‘No-one expected us to be there, so there’s no pressure on my players,’ he said
‘It’d be great to win something so early but we’re going treat it like any other game and try to be the best we can be as team.
‘If we play to our strengths and at our best, we’ve got a good opportunity to win the game.
‘The players have done extremely well at this point in time in executing the way we want to play.
‘The credit should go to the players because they’ve put up with a lot over the years and they’ve done extremely well … but Sydney are definitely the favourites.
‘They’re at home, the squad they’ve got, the great coach in Steve Corica they’ve got … they are the favourites, and they’re expected to be in the Cup final.’
Corica is a proud Queenslander, but sentiment won’t be a problem for the Innisfail product on Saturday night as he attempts to guide the Sydneysiders to the club’s second Cup triumph.
‘It all comes down to one game and we need to make the most of every opportunity that we get,’ Corica said.
‘Playing at home is nice. We’ve played in three Cup finals and only one of them was at home so it will be great to have our home crowd behind us.
‘We would love to go into the start of the league season with a trophy.’
