Melbourne Victory Women’s Coach Jeff Hopkins spoke to media today ahead of Sunday’s Liberty A-League Grand Final against Sydney FC.
Hopkins on facing Sydney away in another Grand Final…
“Knowing that we’ve been there before and it’s possible to be done helps. It is a difficult thing to do and we left it pretty late last time.”
On our strong away form…
“Our away form has been way better than our home form.”
“We’re very close as a group – we have a bit of fun when we go away. The girls enjoy each other’s company and I think that’s a big part of it.”
On the team’s condition…
“We had seven days break leading into the Adelaide game then another seven last week which is a luxury for us, getting this amount of time.”
“In terms of fatigue, there’s no worries about that. We’re nice and fresh and ready to go.”
On the talented line-ups for both sides…
“There’s a lot of key battles there.”
“You look at their wide players and our fullbacks which are great matchups.”
“Their midfield three against our three will have some key one-on-one battles that we’ve identified and know we’ve got to come out on top of those duels.”
“There are some cracking matchups all over that field, that’s what interests me the most.”
On what makes his team special…
“There are some really strong individuals in the group, physically and mentally. They’ve got an incredible resilience and incredible will to win.”
“As a group, they’re very close and look after each other. Nobody messes with us out on the field. We get around each other and look after each other.”
“When you add good individuals into a really good team culture and environment, you’ve got a team that’s very hard to beat.”