Corica wants Sydney FC to emulate back-to-back Brisbane Roar

Sydney FC are on a mission to become the first team since Brisbane Roar to win back-to-back A-League championships, coach Steve Corica declared.

Sydney FC coach Steve Corica looks on Source: Getty Images

The Sky Blues won the 2019 title by beating Perth Glory on penalties in the grand final at Optus Stadium in May. 

In his first season as senior head coach Corica helped the Sky Blues to their fourth Championship and their second in three seasons but the man they call ‘Bimbi’ wants more.

The Brisbane side that won the title in 2011 and 2012 are regarded as the benchmark of Australian football excellence but Corica is hellbent on emulating the deeds of coach Ange Postecoglou’s stellar side.

“For a club like Sydney we want to win trophies every year because our standards are very high,” Corica said as he finalises his preparations for Sydney’s A-League kick-off away to Adelaide United on Friday week. 

“Our target for the coming season is to win the Championship again.

“I know it’s very difficult to go back to back. Brisbane were the only team to do it in 14 seasons of the A-League.

“Obviously that is the challenge for myself and the team. We want to win the grand final again and it would be nice to win the Premiers' Plate as well.

“We have put a very good squad together and our fans can be assured that we are going to give it our best shot.

“Which is why they have to get behind us every week even when we are not at our best.

“But there is pressure, always pressure.”

Many fans regarded Glory as the best team in last season's competition and Sydney’s grand final victory did not go down too well in some quarters, particularly those that maintain that the true champions are those that finish first past the post.

But Corica is having none of it.

“Perth were definitely the most consistent team in my view but if you look at the games we played against them, including the grand final, we won three games out of four,” he protested.

“Okay, the grand final was a draw and we won on penalties but if you look at the VAR we should have won the game in normal time because the goal we scored in the first half was wrongly disallowed for offside.”

After having led the Sky Blues to the title Corica must now expect a higher level of expectation from fans and the media.

He will be judged as a Championship-winning coach and anything less than another title could be seen as a failure in the cut-throat world of modern professional sport.

However if Corica feels that way he is not showing it.

Throughout his career he has had to prove many doubters wrong and he believes nothing will ever change as far as he is concerned.

As a player, he was told he was too small and, as a coach, he was told he was too inexperienced but he always took all this in his stride because he always knew he had the ability, desire and mentality to succeed.

“All through my football career as a player I have had to prove people wrong and last year as a coach was no exception,” he said.

“Many people said we were not going to win because Graham Arnold was gone and we had a new coach and a few new players.

“My job was to come in and do a similar job to Arnie’s and I thought we did well.

“That’s why I took the job in the first place. I believed in my ability and that of the players and we kept believing till the end." 

Corica said he is very pleased with the signings for the new season that should help him achieve his ambition of going back to back in the league.

“All the players we have brought in other than Socceroo Ryan McGowan have played in the A-League,” he said.

“Kosta Barbarouses and Luke Brattan, who have won trophies, and Alexander Baumjohann  are looking forward to the start of the season."

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