Auckland FC assistant coach Danny Hay putting the players through their paces before the game. Photo: Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
Auckland FC coach Steve Corica reduced the number of training days this week before a clash with last-placed Newcastle Jets in the A-League on Sunday.
Disappointed that the players looked "flat" in last week's 1-all draw against Brisbane Roar, Corica said he may have "overcooked them" in training the previous week and opted for three days on the training pitch, rather than five.
"Definitely should be going into the game fresher, but I think the boys have taken responsibility as well," he said. "We all have.
"I didn't enjoy the performance - I think we've got to do a lot better.
"The real positive coming out of it, though, is we're still unbeaten. We're the only team unbeaten in the competition at the moment and we've got a real chance to pick up three points against Newcastle."
While Corica did not like what he saw at Go Media Stadium last Sunday, he did like the way the players responded.
"I can see from what we've done at training, they're switched on, they're ready. Maybe we lost a little bit of focus in the international window, so there is no excuse this week.
"It's a massive game for us. It doesn't matter that they're down the bottom, they're still a very good attacking team.
"They've scored nine goals, they've conceded 14, so there's areas that we think we can score goals and we want to be at our best to do that."
Auckland's goal against the Roar came from Lachlan Brook, who scored for the first time for his third A-League club.
The goal was one he would put on a highlights reel and, for all the jubilation he felt from scoring, he agreed with Corica's disappointment over the team's overall performance.
"That wasn't our best performance," Brook said. "Everyone was a little bit behind what their usual self is.
"Sometimes a player can have a bad day, but if 11 players are having a bad day, it's just not ideal.
"Even as a group, we went into that changingroom and it felt like a loss. I think that just says a lot about how we are as a team.
"You can sort of turn that into a positive and say we drew a game we weren't happy with. We felt like we got spanked 6-0, so I think, going forward, we've won a lot of games, we're not far off the top of the table, so it's more motivation to get one up again."
Brook said, each week, Auckland were confident they could win.
"When you're high in confidence, you've already got an advantage, when we look around the room and... we know that we've got the team that can win everything. For us, it's about going out every week and just proving it."
Francis de Vries took the captain's armband against the Brisbane Roar. Photo: Andrew Cornaga/www.photosport.nz
In the absence of the injured Hiroki Sakai and Jake Brimmer, defender Francis de Vries captained Auckland against the Roar. He started the game after arriving back from All Whites duty in the United States, where he played 167 minutes of football, two days before the game.
"The body is OK," he said. "Obviously, physically, you're always playing with some sort of fatigue, when you're a professional footballer.
"The last couple of weeks, the fatigue has been a little bit more than normal, but amazing experiences.
"Mentally, I'd say I'm in a very good space, enjoying the process of working hard and improving, and taking those next steps, both here with Auckland and away with New Zealand."
De Vries said there was a lot of expectation on Auckland, after last season's run to the Premiers Plate, and despite their good place on the points ladder, they wanted to do better, so he could understand Corica's reaction.
"As a football player, it's part of your job to accept criticism and learn from feedback."
While the Jets, who won the pre-season Australia Cup, have had one win and four losses this season, compared to Auckland's three wins and two draws, de Vries said it was too early in the season to read much into the standings.
"Teams go through patches of form and you don't really know what to expect in the first 10 games. It's not as if they're in bad form.
"They maybe haven't picked up the results yet, but their performances have been good, so we're taking nothing for granted and we'll treat it like a game that we usually do."
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