Adelaide United for the second time in preseason will face Melbourne City
ADELAIDE United defender Michael Jakobsen is the key to winning a psychological edge over his former club Melbourne City which is laden with seven former Reds.
ADELAIDE United defender Michael Jakobsen is looming to be the key to winning a psychological edge over his former club Melbourne City which is laden with eight former Reds.
Adelaide for the second time this preseason will face City - this time in Melbourne on Wednesday afternoon behind closed doors - after the clubs drew 0-0 in a friendly at Hindmarsh Stadium on August 21.
The experienced former Danish international made the move east during the off season as City also lost three ex Reds and Adelaide A-League 2016 title winners Stefan Mauk (Brisbane Roar), Bruce Kamau (Western Sydney) and Ruon Tongyik (Western Sydney).
“We’re going into the next match against a good opponent and you want to see how you’ll do against a quality side,’’ Jakobsen, 32, said.
“If we want to win something next year this is one of the teams we need to compete with.”
Jakobsen never lost to Adelaide in three A-League matches last season, including the Reds’ worst performance for the season — a 5-0 win for City in Melbourne.
City is living proof the 10-club A-League is one huge revolving door and a tough competition to crack for good young local players but United in the past is by far the most productive in blooding young guns.
City is home to former Reds captain Eugene Galekovic, Scott Jamieson, Osama Malik, Dario Vidosic, Iacopo La Rocca, Rostyn Griffiths, new signing Mark Birighetti and FIFA Puskas award nominee Riley McGree.
The 19-year-old is on loan from Belgium’s Club Brugge after he was loaned out to 2018 A-League grand finalist Newcastle Jets from January 1 where he scored five goals in 12 appearances.
It’s understood the former Gawler Eagles midfielder’s parent Belgian club bypassed dealing with Adelaide, where he made his A-League debut under title-winning boss Guillermo Amor in March 2016, during the off season.
Despite City’s impressive recruiting, Jakobsen, 32, believes Adelaide has been very good in preseason training although declared it’s hard to gauge where the club is really at this time of season.
The Dane shouldn’t be perturbed by what Melbourne City has on show given he faced current best FIFA men’s player Cristiano Ronaldo and other world superstars Mesut Ozil, Kaka, Marcelo, Sami Khedira, Sergio Ramos, Iker Casillas and Karim Benzema when his former club UD Almeria held Real Madrid to a 1-1 draw during a La Liga clash in 2011.
However, he said the Reds must be better than the 90 minute FFA Cup round of 16 shift they put in against Lions of Queensland after a laborious 1-0 win on August 29.
“There’s a lot of things (we need to improve) after a game like that,’’ Jakobsen said.
“It was not an easy pitch or any easy opponent, they were doing well and made us work hard for the ball.
“The next game (against APIA Leichhardt on September 26) hopefully we get a better pitch and we can concentrate on our game instead of what they do.”