Dean Ugrinic will be back on the national stage leading his Canberra Croatia outfit, after a last-gasp winner saw the reigning Champions through to the Australia Cup Round of 32.
Despite what turned out to be an immensely difficult evening for Croatia, the team got over the line in the end, with a win that guarantees their spot in the final rounds of Australia’s cup competition, and another trophy for the silverware-hungry football club.
“Look, it’s a relief,” Ugrinic said. “Queanbeyan put up a fantastic, valiant effort, they came to the big dance, and I don’t know whether or not we were here to be honest, but you know at the end of the day we’re there, we’ll take it, it’s another trophy.”
Such was the arduous task presented to the cup winners by a motivated Queanbeyan City, that while the win was earned through Croatia’s perseverance, Ugrinic’s overall analysis of his team’s performance was laced with dissatisfaction, while still remaining positive about the engaging nature of the contest.
“Queanbeyan came out to unsettle us which they did and then they put us off our normal game,” he said. “I thought that we had a few performers that just weren’t there unfortunately, for whatever reason that is and I can’t put my finger on it at this time.
“It was an entertaining game for the neutral which is great, which is what you want in the Australia Cup, there was chances on both ends, we had some good chances, I thought second half we were pretty good, we had the better of the play, but all credit to Queanbeyan they grafted and created their own couple of half chances, and a good chance there to win it as well.”
“So, all in all it was a great game, an entertaining game and I’m glad that we’re through.”
So often the best teams manage to find ways to win matches when they’re performing below their regular level, and this was the case on Saturday according to Ugrinic.
“You’ve got to grind things out when an opposition comes to the party like that, you’ve just got to grind results and credit to our guys, we did,” he said.
“It wasn’t a true reflection of us today, I admit it, and I think if you speak to every one of our boys they’ll admit it, they’ll be disappointed with their performance but at the end of the day it’s a trophy, and we’ve got there and now we can just look forward to the final 32, we’re looking forward to the draw and representing Canberra.”
It’s an opportunity for the region to compete against the best teams nation-wide, and while an A-League team would be an exciting opponent to draw, both for the crowd appeal and enhanced exposure for the club, Ugrinic says his side are happy to face any team, with the focus aimed more towards progressing deeper into the competition.
“Look obviously it brings excitement and that’s what we want at the local level don’t we, we want good teams coming here, we want lots of people coming here, and it does create an interest but that’s out of our control obviously,” he said. “We’ll play whoever it is, it’s just exciting to be there, fingers crossed that we can go further in the competition.”
Despite the closeness of the contest, Canberra Croatia’s cup run merited a trophy at the end of the day, given the club conceded just once in their entire cup run, the Nico Abot final equaliser, and scored an incredible 16 in four games.
This run, paired with their incredible league form, tells the tale of a club at the peak of their powers, and it’s all down to the strength of Ugrinic’s squad.
“I think it’s quality across the park, we’ve just got this real exciting blend of hard-nose experienced players, coupled with this youth and exuberance, and they’re dynamic and they’re fast and when they’re on, they look very, very exciting, however there are going to be times when they’re not on, and that was probably reflective today,” he said.
“That’s where you get your hard-nose guys like your Colby’s [Daniel Colbertaldo], your Daniel Sparrow’s, Matty Grbesa’s, Daniel Subasic’s, to name a few, who can just help grind through a result, and that’s what we did tonight.”
Words: Sam Watson
