Round 1 hero Roderick Miranda is excited to play in front of a Victory home crowd for the first time on Sunday when they host Brisbane Roar at AAMI Park.
The Portuguese centre-back headed in the winner and kept a clean sheet in his Club debut against Western United last week, and was amazed by the support from the travelling fans in Geelong.
With AAMI Park allowed to host blockbuster crowds once again, Miranda can’t wait to step out onto the pitch in Round 2.
“I’m very excited,” he told media on Thursday. “I hope AAMI Park is buzzing because the support in Round 1 was unbelievable even though it was an away game.
“I think everybody is excited with the start of the new season. It will be our first game at home and hopefully the fans can come and get us all on fire.”
The squad will also be buoyed by Wednesday night’s FFA Cup win over Perth Glory.
Victory took a young team to Adelaide given the short turnaround with Isuzu UTE A-League fixtures and the young brigade stepped up in the absence of veteran stars.
“It was a very good match from them,” Miranda said. “It shows we have a big squad with solutions at each position.
“It was important for us to go through in the FFA Cup. Now everyone is focussed on the next game.”
Victory face a Brisbane squad making their second trip to AAMI Park in as many weeks, having gone down 1-2 to Melbourne City in Round 1.
Despite Victory’s opening week win, Miranda says the team has plenty to improve on from their Round 1 performance to secure another three points.
“It was our first competitive game, so of course we have a lot of areas to get better at,” he said.
“We didn’t have too much of the ball in the first half – we need to have more of the ball to gain more control of the game.
“On the defensive end, the team was very solid and compact. We didn’t gave too many chances away, so defensively it was a good game. We need to improve offensively to get more opportunities and score more goals.
“We had eight new players in the team making their debut…we’re going to be better in the second game.”
