A proud John van ‘t Schip faced the media yesterday after his Melbourne Heart side put in a class display with ten men to win 2-1 against Sydney FC.
Jonatan Germano squared the game up at 1-1, cancelling Corey Gameiro’s opener for Sydney, before a late wonder goal from David Williams saw Heart take all three points.
van ‘t Schip was incredibly happy with the efforts of his players, who were a goal and a man down before the conclusion of the first half .
“I think if you come behind one-nil, ten men, well first ten men then one-nil a few minutes later, you know its going to be a tough game but I think from the start we played well,” he said post game.
“We created not maybe that many chances but we were playing good football.
“We had a few very good playing situations, then when Orlando got sent off of course it changes, but still then we kept on playing forward.“
Some inspiring half-time words from the Heart coach made the difference as his side struck twice to overturn the one goal deficit.
“In the half-time I told them that this game wasn’t over and playing against ten men, if you do it well organised is not easy, so we played compact when they had the ball,” van ‘t Schip said.
“I told [Kewell] not to spend that much energy in defending too much, but when we had the ball that he had to make sure that he was available for the other players to receive the first ball and I think he did very well.
“We had a lot of depth still going on and that kept us in the game because then we get a breather and Sydney actually couldn’t create that much.”
As for the Williams goal, van ‘t Schip waxed lyrical, declaring the feeling as the “best moments” in football.
“It was a really good goal, fantastic, and for him I think very important being injured the last week, coming in, coming out, and every player needs sometimes a good moment, and I think for David it was a fantastic moment.
“He did everything on his own and showed in that one moment that he has a lot of quality, hope for us he can show it more.
“That are of course the best moments, scoring 2-1 and still you know that there’s some minutes to be played but they had a fight from the start of the game.”
van ‘t Schip is expecting more of the same from Williams, who (like most of his teammates) has struggled with consistency this season.
“He has to bring more; he can do a lot more,” he said.
“Like all the other players they have to believe more in themselves and the confidence is growing and I think David is one of the players that can show more, and this evening he did.”
The other major talking point from the night was referee Jarrad Gillett’s decision to send off Orlando Engelaar.
“Well I personally thought it was a very hard decision,” van ‘t Schip said.
“He didn’t hit the player on a hard way, he said he got his leg back in the situation that he went down so he hardly hit the player.
“I think the referee could have maybe thought a few seconds longer before just immediately getting to his red card.
“It was obvious that it was not a tackle to break someone’s leg, it was actually maybe not even a yellow but that’s my opinion.”
With Heart taking seven points from three games, there’s talk that the resurgence could carry all the way through to an unlikely finals appearance, but whilst some may be touting the clubs chances, van ‘t Schip is happy to just see his side continue to perform.
“If we improve as a team we’ll get more results, and you have to be honest that the distance [from the top six] is big.
“It’d be a big surprise if we can get there but we should not think about that.
“We should think about improving and then in the end we’ll see how far we can come.
“We have to take it game by game, and we’re getting a tough game the next game against Perth so we have to prepare ourselves well for that.”