Campbelltown City v Adelaide Comets
PlayStation 4 National Premier League South Australia Round 7

When: Saturday March 21, Kick-off 3pm
Where: Steve Woodcock Sports Centre, Stradbroke Road, NEWTON.    

Form:

Campbelltown City: W W W

Round 4: Pirates 2 Campbelltown City 5, Pirate Park
Round 5: Campbelltown City 4 Modbury Jets 0, Steve Woodcock Sports Centre
Round 6: Croydon Kings 0 Campbelltown City 1, Polonia Reserve

Adelaide Comets: W L L

Round 4: Modbury 1 Adelaide Comets 5, Jet Park
Round 5: Adelaide Comets 1 Croydon Kings 3, Santos Stadium
Round 6: Adelaide Comets 0 Adelaide Blue Eagles 3, Santos Stadium

Preview:

Campbelltown City host Adelaide Comets this Saturday at the Steve Woodcock Sports Centre in the Round 7 fixture of the PlayStation 4 National Premier Leagues South Australia.

The North-Eastern based club has had an excellent start to the season, remaining unbeaten after six matches and sitting out-right third on the ladder after defeating  reigning champions Croydon Kings 1-0 last week.

Campbelltown City player Jake Monaco admits that recent results have been satisfying for the team, but insists that focus is crucial for the continuation of his team’s performances.

“Obviously, it was a big results for us (1-0 win over Croydon),” he said.

“I think we’ve had a good start, but I mean obviously, we’re aware that it is a long season, so we need to stay focused for the full 26 games.”

Monaco continues:
“We’ve been focused on obviously staying unbeaten and clean sheets and being solid as a team. We know if we stay solid in the back, we’ve got the fire power to score and win games.”

Monaco believes among other things that the defensive structure has been the key to Campbelltown’s current success.

“We’re more structured in defence,” he said. “Obviously, we’ve had an extra year of playing together.”

“I’d assume that few of the younger boys have had some experience now in the season.

“We’ve had some new players come in too, which has sort of helped us a little bit and I think mainly our attitude as well; we’re all obviously very focused this year.

“After missing the finals last year, we’re very hungry to stay up there in the top part of the table.”

Adelaide Comets defeated Campbelltown twice last season and Monaco is ready to enact revenge on his upcoming opponents.

“I think they beat us both times last year, so we’re obviously hungry to get back at them for that,” he said.

“We know they’re a good team, obviously, and we know a few of the boys from their team that can hurt us, so we’re obviously wary of them.”

However, the Comets would rather avoid a third consecutive defeat, especially after last week’s 3-0 loss against current table toppers Adelaide Blue Eagles, as Comets player Davide Zerillo explained:

“We got beaten by a team on the day that was better than us,” he said.” I guess they taught us a couple of good lessons, but I certainly don’t think that we were at our best last week and we only got to blame ourselves for that.”

Sitting sixth on the table having won and lost three games respectively, Zerillo seems to be relatively happy with his performances thus far.

“I guess we’ve won the games we definitely expected to win, which were against Para Hills, Pirates and Modbury,” he said.

“And I thought we’ve been quite competitive in the other games apart from Blue Eagles.

“We certainly have had a good start to the year, but it’s not good enough still, we’ve got to keep building on what we done so far and keep getting better and better.”

Like Jake Monaco of Campbelltown, Zerillo is very much wary of his upcoming opponents.

“Campbelltown are definitely one of the form teams at the moment,” he said.” I don’t think they’ve lost yet.”

“Defensively they look very strong and they look very organised, so I think it would be a good test for us.

“We’ve sort of got a game plan in mind that we’re going with and a structure that we go there with, and try to open them a bit and take our chances.

“It definitely will be a challenge”

Article by Christopher Munker