A-League 2018: City defender Bart Schenkeveld stokes fire ahead of Melbourne derby

NO-NONSENSE Melbourne City defender Bart Schenkeveld has declared names and history count for nothing when the opening whistle blows in the Melbourne derby.

Bart Schenkeveld of Melbourne City.

NO-NONSENSE Melbourne City defender Bart Schenkeveld has declared names and history count for nothing when the whistle blows in Saturday’s season-opening Melbourne derby.

The Dutchman declared last season’s semi-final loss a missed opportunity and claimed City would have gone on to beat Melbourne Victory in the final had they advanced.

Schenkeveld’s fondly recalled his battles with firebrand Besart Berisha and was not fazed with his replacements, World Cup stars Keisuke Honda and Ola Toivonen (ex PSV Eindhoven) who he dueled with in the Dutch Eredivisie.

“I respect all my opponents but at the end of the day, on paper, I respect them like their careers were great – Toivonen and Honda both,’’ Schenkeveld said.

“But next week, we stand on the field, 11 against 11, it doesn’t matter how (much) money you have in your bank account, what cars you drive, what is your history.

“At that point, what matters is who has the desire. We will figure (that) out. I will be ready and I will get my team ready.

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“It’s beautiful to start, it’s a good kick-off and it’s good because everybody understands from day one what we play for and I’m looking forward to playing against them.

“He (Berisha) was a good guy but people made him bigger. He was not special, but a lot of people can learn off his winner’s mentality.

“Sometimes you see it goes the wrong way because he gets too emotional. But that was his biggest quality – he was always desperate to win.”

Schenkeveld, 27, remains gutted by City’s semi-final exit to Newcastle Jets, when stage-fright saw them relinquish the lead to lose 2-1.

While he claimed the Jets did not come to play, Schenkeveld said City took full responsibility for the loss.

Bart Schenkeveld (front) is fired up for the A-League opener.

“I think we played well, only the semi-final we had a bad game because we lost against a team that didn’t want to play football and we played their game and not our game and it was our mistake,’’ he said.

“We were very close. I had a feeling if we win that game we win the league and we would make history then.

“I feel really sad because people don’t know how many sacrifices we made.

“It means so much to us to give something back to all our fans and all the people that work so hard and do everything for us to perform in the weekends as good as we can.

“If I look back, that’s most disappointing, that I didn’t give the trophy that the people here deserve.

“I hope and think it will be a beautiful journey. We’ve worked hard in pre-season and a lot of guys here without family, I think there’s a lot of sacrifices (made).”

Originally published as A-League 2018: City defender Bart Schenkeveld stokes fire ahead of Melbourne derby