Nick Carle

AS the old football cliché goes, it’s been a season of two halves for Sydney FC. After failing to win any of their opening 10 A-League games, the defending champions were pretty much written off for the finals by the end of December. Sydney’s marquee signing Nick Carle spent much of that time sidelined with a catalogue of foot and hamstring injuries but his return to full fitness at the turn of the year has coincided with a resurgence from the Sky Blues, who are now unbeaten in 2011. Ultimately, it proved too late to make up the ground on the top six but it means Sydney go into next month’s AFC Champions League as one of the competition’s form teams. BBM’s Richard Gadsby caught up with Carle ahead of the club’s opening group game against Korean club Suwon Samsung Bluewings…

At the end of 2010, I don’t think many people would have given you a chance going into the Champions League, but considering the way you’ve started 2011, you must feel like you can surprise a few people. What are your ambitions for the competition?

You have to be respectful of the opposition in every game of football but the Champions League is going to be another level. From a personal point of view, I don’t know what to expect. As a footballer you want to win every game but we’re very aware of the standard of opponents we’ll be facing. Our first target will be just to get out of the group stage. If we manage that, we’ll just take each game on its own merit.

On a personal level, your two goals at the weekend [in a 2-2 draw against Melbourne Heart] must have been a boost. Where was your mindset after the game compared to the end of last year when the team were struggling and you were on the sidelines?

After being out so long it’s just nice to get a run of games under my belt and get a bit of form. I feel I’m getting better and better and I probably should have scored a few more goals to be honest. I had a few chances against Wellington, for example, and should have done better but that’s football. But the important thing is as a team we’ve kept this run going and showed a bit of consistency. We’re unbeaten for eight games now and I think five or six of those were away from home. I’m not trying to make excuses but we’ve had key players out for big parts of the season. In the A-League with the salary cap, when you’ve got key players like Brosquey (Alex Brosque) and Bridgey (Mark Bridge) out it makes a big difference because you don’t have the resources to cover for that kind

of top quality.

On paper, the Melbourne Heart draw was meaningless – but how important was it mentally to keep up the unbeaten run heading into the Champions League?

It’s huge. OK, it wasn’t the best game we’ve played during this eight-game run but we still managed to get a draw away from home against a very good side. That’s the thing about football, no side plays brilliantly every week but it’s important when you’re not playing that well that you still get a result. Obviously they only had 10 men and tired a bit towards the end but we kept going and got a result.

Does it feel like a win when that happens – when you’ve not played well but you still scrape something?

Yes. It’s just as important to get a point from those games as it is to win games that you dominate. It keeps that momentum going.

Suwon Samsung Bluewings [who Sydney play at home on March 2nd] are one of the strongest teams in Korea. Have you anaylsed them yet?

We’ve not [studied them] but they’ll be a lot for us to look at in the next couple of weeks. Until last weekend we were still focused on the A-League and making sure we finished the season in the strongest way possible. Now we’ll just give all our attention to Asia. In the coming weeks we’ll get all the information about the sides we
’re playing but we already know that the Japanese and Korean teams will be very tough – and the best side in China are in our group.

Considering the way the team finished the A-League season you must feel you’re going into the Champion’s League on a high. Or is missing out on the finals still in your mind?

I’m still very disappointed to be honest. I would have loved to have finished in the finals but we left ourselves with to do much to do. At least now we’ve got a chance to make amends in the Champions League. It’s good we’ve got these games to focus on otherwise we’d just feel frustrated. It’s a second chance.

Can you feel a difference in the dressing room now compared to before the unbeaten run?

It’s a lot easier to go into the dressing room when you’re winning. I have to say though that even through the bad times, the team’s professionalism has been first class. We always believed in the way we were playing but we had such bad luck with injuries. We kept faith in the system when it would have been easier to point fingers and all credit to the coaching staff because the last couple of months have proven us right. We just ran out of time in the end.

Finally, who’s your tip for the grand final and why… or do you not care now?

(Laughs) No I’ll be following it. I’m a believer in whoever’s the best team after 30 rounds deserves to win – so from that point of view I think Brisbane deserve it.

Sydney FC are offering BBM readers a great deal to watch all three of their AFC Champions League home games for just $45. See the inside front cover, next to the contents page, for more information.