Melbourne Victory manager Carlos Salvachua admits the travel load created by the AFC Champions League presents challenges, but insists he will continue to select the best possible squads for each game.
The team will arrive home from Seoul on Thursday and train in Melbourne on Friday morning before heading to Newcastle for Round 20 of the Hyundai A-League season.
“Tomorrow, we’ll have recovery here in Seoul and after 15 hours of travel we will train on Friday and then head to Newcastle,” Salvachua said.
“We’ll see how the boys are after the trip and try to set up with our best squad for Saturday’s game.
“It can be difficult to manage, we played in five or six degrees below zero and on Saturday maybe it’s 25 degrees – but that’s the Champions League and it’s one of the difficulties we have to manage.”
We fought hard but fell short against @FCSEOUL on Match Day 2. #FCSvMEL report: https://t.co/Lk8I0k8iSA #MVFC #OurVictory pic.twitter.com/h8knw1TjJw
— Melbourne Victory (@gomvfc) February 18, 2020
Salvachua picked a youthful side to face Seoul, with a number of young players getting valuable minutes against the six-time K League 1 Champions.
“I was really pleased [with the young players], they are starting in football and it’s a great way for us to develop players.
“It was a disappointing result because we had chances in the first half to score at least one goal.
Young midfielder Jay Barnett was substituted in the first half after suffering a leg injury which will require scans when the team returns to Melbourne.
“We’ll see how bad it is when we get to Melbourne.
“The doctor is not happy in this moment, it looks like a problem with his leg bone, so we’ll need to see what that means for the rest of the season.”
