Centurion Grant ready for stern Brisbane test

Defender Rhyan Grant is prepared for a testing 100th game for Sydney FC because he expects to be up against the competition's leading goal-scorer, Brisbane Roar striker Brandon Borrello.

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"If I stay at left-back I think it will be Borrello coming down my side, so I'll have to be right on my game and shut him down," the versatile Grant told The World Game ahead of the match at Allianz Stadium on Friday night.

"He's a quick player who likes to get in behind and Brisbane are good at making that happen for their forwards. Hopefully we can stop that before the ball gets to him and before I'm put under the pump."

Grant is only 24 and reaching 100 A-League games, all for the one club,  is an excellent achievement for a player of his age. 

He made his debut at 17 and may have racked up about closer to 150 games by now had it not been for serious injuries.

"This is my eighth season at the club, so I've been here a while," he said.

"I've had a few injuries during that time. I was out for a year after a knee reconstruction and I tore all the ligaments in my ankle and missed about seven months with that, so my number of games isn't as big as it could be, but it's still very enjoyable to reach 100 and something I'm very proud of.

"It has all come together now. It's pretty exciting stuff and, I believe, quite an achievement to play 100 games, and for Sydney FC, one of the biggest clubs, so I'm pretty stoked with that.

"I'm very happy with what I'm doing as a footballer and I wouldn't want to be at any other club."

Grant said that while Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold would take into account what Brisbane do well, he would rely on his players to bank on Sydney's playing style to get the job done rather than worry too much about the opposition.

"Arnie is known for having good structure and that's what leads to good defence," Grant said.

"Every player knows his individual role. We've done that well in the early part of the season and hopefully we can start scoring more goals to go with that and keep a lot of clean sheets as well.

"We'll look at what Brisbane do as a team and as individuals. They're scoring a lot of goals, so they're a threat. But we'll worry about ourselves mainly and play to our game plan."

Borrello has scored four goals and his fellow forward, Jamie Maclaren, is equal second on the goal-scoring list with three.

Grant said the best way to deny those players from getting clear-cut chances was to defend as a team.

"We know what Brisbane are capable of and we won't take them lightly," he said. "They've started the season quite well. We have to stop those key players that they have up front.

"But they've got a great team overall and the best way to combat that is to concentrate on what we do and make sure we do it well, and everyone's a defender in our side.

"It's not just the back four, it starts up front with Smeltzy and Brosquey. They've been brilliant early this season, the way they defend from the front. "I don't think a lot of people recognise them for that, but if you watch the games you can see how much has been put into closing down opposition players and defending from the front.

"That's exactly what Arnie wants. The whole team has to defend, so that players like Corona and Thomas Broich don't get the ball in good positions and feed it to the scorers."

Sydney FC are on top of the table and Brisbane second. Grant said that while Sydney have collected 10 points from a possible 12 so far they still had a lot of improvement left in them.

"It's always a positive to be sitting high on the table early in the season," he said.

"But we can do much better and the good thing is that we've got plenty of time to build. I'm sure once we get to our best we'll be looking good."