Continental carrot has Farina hungry
Premiers Melbourne Victory have already claimed one of the two Australian berths in the continental club competition, meaning the winner of the Hyundai A-League 2009 Preliminary Final at Hindmarsh Stadium will claim the other.
But Farina said getting a win in Adelaide would be a tough task, despite the issues surrounding his opponents in the wake of their heavy loss to Melbourne on the weekend.
“Irrespective of everything else that-s going on around them, they-re a good football side,” the Roar coach said.
“We-re just trying to focus on what we-ve got to do which is a big mountain to climb - to go to Adelaide and win - but we have done it before.
“So we-ll just let them keep going with what-s happening down there and just concentrate on getting ourselves ready for what is really our grand final.
“This is the grand final because the winner of this game qualifies for Asia irrespective of what happens in the Grand Final as such. So this, for both us and Adelaide, is a massive game.”
Farina will give injured winger Tahj Minniecon until Thursday to prove his fitness, but was otherwise pleased with his team-s preparation, with nearly the full squad fit and firing.
“Winning breeds confidence and we-ve had a really good second half of the season,” he said.
The Roar on Saturday will hope to exorcise the demons of last season, when they went out at the same stage against the Newcastle Jets.
But Farina agreed with Liam Reddy-s comments that the team was better placed to progress this time around.
“We-ve got a lot of different players scoring goals whereas last year it was sprinkled around three or four,” he said.
“So that-s been the big difference and that-s where we-re better off than we were, say, 12 months ago.”