EXCLUSIVE
By Donny Afroni
Adelaide United's Dutch-Indonesian striker Sergio van Dijk says he is looking forward to taking on Indonesia's champions Persipura Jayapura in their AFC Champions League play-off on Thursday.
The Reds will meet the Indonesian Super League champions at Hindmarsh Stadium this week, after the Asian Football Confederation allowed Persipura to compete in the play-offs after they went to the Court for Arbitration of Sport after being excluded from the original draw.
For van Dijk, 29, the clash will be his first against Indonesian opposition. The Netherlands-born striker is set to soon be available for the Indonesian national team when he gains his citizenship.
"First of all, with all respect to Persipura, it's of course a really strange thing, to quickly play a play-off match for such an important tournament," van Dijk told Goal.com.
"But on the other hand, for me personally it's good to face an Indonesian opponent for the first time in my career. In the end, if the people higher up in the organisation say we have to play, then we have to be professional and make the most out of this situation."
Van Dijk qualifies for Indonesian national team as his grandmother hails from the South-East Asian nation. However, he admitted he didn't know a lot about his upcoming opponents.
"I watched the game Persija versus Persipura last week, to have a look at the team," he said.
"Obviously Persipura are a strong side. And I explained to my team-mates, who asked me about Persipura.
"Persipura were last year's champions and have more good players like Tibo, Beto, Ortizan Solossa and Salampessy, to name a few. But we have good players as well, so it will be an interesting confrontation."
Van Dijk specifically highlighted Boaz Salossa as a thread, however Persipura's star man is out of Thursday's game due to injury.
The Adelaide striker added: "That makes our chances to get to the group stage bigger as he is one of their most important players. But even without him, I know Persipura still can be dangerous."
Meanwhile, the 2010-11 Golden Boot winner highlighted the Reds' most dangerous players.
"Our Australian internationals Dario Vidosic and Bruce Djite. They are players with European experience. And our goalkeeper is the best in Australia: Eugene Galekovic," he said.
Van Dijk also said new coach John Kosmina was helping the side improve, although they have recently had a rough run after his initial positive impact after arriving in December.
"After the difficult first half of the competition and the sacking of the coach, we started to play better since he took over. The different formation probably suit our players better," he said.
"We still can improve and we are getting better every week, but still have a long way to go if we want to finish this season on a good note."
for the latest in Asian footballing news, features, and analysis
There are no comments yet