Heidelberg United coach John Kyrgios was happy with his sides winning start to the season, reserving praise for some of the new faces that have been brought in for this campaign.
It’s been a tough summer for the Bergers, who lost American duo Erin Brennan and Leigh Gray, which compounded onto the loss of retired former skipper Belinda Panella.
Those departures have left big holes to fill in the squad, but the Heidelberg coach is satisfied so far with the signings he’s made to make up for those losses.
“We’ve lost quite a bit from last year, we’ve lost five starters and probably the five players that were the highest vote getters in the best and fairest, so to lose five players of that calibre, it’s very hard to bring players of equal calibre in,” Kyrgios said.
“But we have got some players like Melanie Camilleri, [who] is a wonderful player and I think she’ll do well this year.
“There’s also some other players that have come in like Eleni Fakos, who’s a young, up and coming player who also I believe will do well, and there’s also USA girl [Kendra Jones] that we’ve brought in. She’s carrying a bit of a knock but she’ll do very well as well.
“Alexandra Bogdanovski is another player that has come on board and she’s done very well. I thought the defence did quite well so they protected Alexandra quite a bit and she’ll do very well for us this year.”
All the new signings begun well against Monbulk, with Camilleri scoring and Jones proving a hinderance on the left flank, but the youngest signing in Fakos showed glimpses of the potential that saw her picked as a Melbourne Victory W-League train on.
Her assist for the second goal was one of her standout moments, and Kyrgios is excited about what the young starlet has to offer Heidelberg.
“For such young years, her awareness on the park is fantastic and her skills are really good as well,” he said.
“The way she laid off the ball for Michelle [Verzi] was brilliant. It came from a throw in, she laid it off and off we went and scored the second goal, it was really good.”
Kyrgios was also pleased to see Angie Rassias get on the scoresheet, which has proven just reward for the work put in during pre-seaon.
“Angie Rassias came from USA [last season] very unfit so it took her a while to get fit,” he said.
“I tell you what she’s worked really well over summer and she’s super fit now. She’s doing really, really well.
“I was happy for her to score actually, considering she started off as a left back and she scored up front at the end.”