Melbourne Victory defender Adrian Leijer has discussed the Victory’s ambitions this season, revealing the boys in blue have their sights set on taking home the inaugural Westfield FFA Cup.
Melbourne will have to wait until August 20 to take their first step towards FFA Cup glory when they travel to Western Australia to face NPLWA side Bayswater City FC – with Leijer touching upon the significance of the clash.
“[Melbourne Victory vs Bayswater City] is an important game for us and we’re really looking forward to it,” said Leijer.
“Pre-season traditionally in the A-League has been very long and pretty strenuous but now we’ve got something to break it up.
“It’s an important competition for us and we’ve got high hopes within it and to be the first winners of the FFA Cup would be pretty special as well – that’s definitely our target.”
Leijer also expressed his enthusiasm about the new competition and the state of the world game in Australia.
“It’s exciting, it’s something that the community can really get behind, football in this country. Especially the A-League, we’re getting out there as well,” he said.
“The game is going in the right direction, it’s taken a while to get there but finally the FFA Cup is here.”
The Victory are in the midsts of a rigorous pre-season campaign, looking to make any final amendments as they approach their first competitive fixture.
Kevin Muscat’s men have played a number of friendly games with local NPL Victoria clubs including Bentleigh Greens, Hume City and most recently, a 5-0 win over Port Melbourne.
“Yeah, it was a good win [on Tuesday night] – more so at this stage of the year when we’re all trying to get our fitness up and our match conditioning but [to come away with a] 5-0 win was fantastic,” Leijer said.
“Getting out into the community against these clubs has been very enjoyable and the way they’ve hosted us is fantastic.”
The hit outs have served the purpose of giving new signings Carl Valeri, Besart Berisha and Matthieu Delpierre plenty of minutes with their new teammates and despite luring the trio, Leijer hinted that the club may still be looking at a few players.
“We have made some very good signings (Berisha, Valeri and Delpierre), still a couple more to come in so I wouldn’t say there’s one that excites us the most,” he said.
“They’ve brought a lot of experience and leadership and a real drive – maybe that was something that was missing the last couple of years, we’ve just got that little bit of X-Factor and hopefully that means bringing home some trophies.
“The young boys are really progressing, they progressed really well in the Asian Champions League last year and we’re getting pretty confident with our squad.”
Melbourne Victory square off against NPL 1 opponents Richmond SC tomorrow afternoon. Kick-off at Kevin Bartlett Reserve is scheduled for 3pm.