Central Coast Mariners regret to announce tomorrow’s pre-season friendly fixture against Sydney FC has been cancelled.
Central Coast Mariners regret to advise tomorrow-s pre-season friendly fixture against Sydney FC has been cancelled.
Central Coast Mariners Head Coach, Graham Arnold, said: “I am very apologetic and the players are very disappointed that we have to cancel this game.”
“I spoke at length to (Sydney FC Head Coach) Ian Crook who totally understands our situation as Sydney have had to call off games due to the same situation this pre-season.”
“Originally the game was booked for Thursday but had to be moved to Wednesday due to the (Alessandro) Del Piero factor.”
“We played in Maroochydore on Sunday against Brisbane in very warm conditions and that has sapped the energy of our players. We also copped a few slight injuries and after travelling back yesterday we had a light training session this morning. The players have not recovered sufficiently for me to put them in a high-risk situation by playing again tomorrow.”
“It was my decision to cancel the game as I don-t want to jeopardise the welfare of any of our players.”
“After the Brisbane game and performance I am very happy with where we are at tactically and mentally, and we-re ready to go for round one against Western Sydney. That is our focus.”
“We-re disappointed that we can-t play Sydney who we deem as one of the favourites for this year’s Hyundai A-League. It would have been a good test for us to see where we are at,” Arnold concluded.
Central Coast Mariners acknowledge and appreciate the understanding of Sydney FC.
