Sydney FC coach Steve Corica took the opportunity – or gamble – to rest Alex Brosque against Adelaide United but the veteran striker is expected to be back in contention for the visit of Newcastle to Kogarah on Saturday night.
Since December 1, Brosque had started all seven of Sydney FC’s matches before the clash with the Reds, playing the full 90 minutes in four games.
The 35-year-old managed 66 minutes in the midweek defeat to the Glory in Perth with Corica opting to rest Brosque from the start in the 2-1 win over Adelaide at Kogarah on Sunday.
Brosque played the last 25 minutes and could have sealed victory with a glorious chance four minutes from full-time, only to blaze his volley wide.
Corica said it had been a good chance to freshen up one of his main attacking threats with Dutch attacker Siem de Jong having returned from injury.
“I had to rest Brosquey because six games in a month is a lot for him,” Corica said.
“So we had to freshen up the squad a little bit [against Adelaide]. I thought Siem played his best game for us, scoring that really good free kick.
“We have some really important games coming up with Wellington on the 23rd [of January] and [Melbourne] Victory down there on the 26th so we will need to look at giving some of the others a rest and manage that.
“But we have the depth to do that and the players coming in are quality.”
Corica was pleased with the performance of his side as well as the result against the Reds, with Sydney FC having won their last three matches in a row at Jubilee Stadium ahead of their meeting with the struggling Jets.
The Sky Blues had endured a slow start to life at their major temporary home in the St George district, losing their opening two matches to Melbourne Victory and Wellington.
But they are starting to feel at home with another strong crowd expected at Kogarah for what will be Sydney’s sixth of seven home matches at Jubilee this season.
“[Against Adelaide] was a much better performance defensively and at 2-0 we were looking good,” Corica said.
“We had the goal overturned and Brosquey miss that one at the end so it could have been far more convincing than it ended up.
“They only had two shots on target and [Andrew Redmayne] did his job when the time was right so we could get away with the win.
“I thought both Jacob [Tratt] and Danny [De Silva] were really good and it was great for Tratty to come up with a goal as well.
“We need to be better with the ball[against the Jets] but I thought we were really good defensively and both those boys played well.”
Kick-off on Saturday night is at 5.35pm.
