Heidelberg United coach John Kyrgios has expressed his delight with his team’s upset win over defending champions Box Hill United and credited his players for their efforts as they get one step closer to an unlikely Grand Final berth.
A Julia Nicolaci brace sealed the result, as even a wonderful equaliser to former Heidelberg starlet Stacey Papadopoulos could not prevent Heidelberg from continuing this dream run.
“I’m just elated! I’m just very very happy for the girls, they deserved it. They worked very very hard and just showed the fighting spirit that we have. It was amazing,” Kyrgios said.
“It was very tense, we knew it was going to be hard in the second half if we’re playing against the wind. We really never got going today, credit to the opposition for they didn’t allow us to get going but the pitch was [also] very difficult.”
The experience present in the Heidelberg line-up on Sunday was crucial to the their success, as many of the key players stood up to ensure that they would book a place in this weekend’s preliminary final.
Kyrgios credits a lot of the change in fortunes to his more experienced charges, as well as a few shrewd recruits.
“It was a very young side earlier on in the season. We got a lot of experience now if you go through our squad in fact the young ones are probably, there’s not many of them,” he said.
“I’m very very excited with our recruitment and the way everyone’s blended in and there’s no reason why we can’t keep working hard to the next game. I’m not going to say anything more than that because you know soccer is a cruel game. Always can roll either way.”
As for tackling Sandringham in the preliminary final, Kyrgios is confident that a combination of rest and executing their game plan is key to winning and booking a place in the final against South Melbourne.
“They need a bit of a rest. We’ll set up the way we think we should, there will be another game plan as what we had today and take it to them as well,” he said.
Heidelberg’s match against Sandringham will be played at JL Murphy Reserve at 12pm on Sunday.