While few teams publicly admit they want to win a pre-season tournament, Melbourne Victory's players have made no secret taking out tomorrow night's A-League pre-season cup is a required target for the club.
The Victory jetted off to New Zealand today aiming for the one piece of A-League silverware the club hasn't won, looking to beat the improving Wellington Phoenix in the pre-season final.
Mindful the club struggled to recover from a slowish start to the last A-League season, coach Ernie Merrick said his players had met prior to the competition and vowed to use the pre-season tournament to ensure they were ready to go for the season proper.
"I think it is very important - the players here themselves set their agenda for the year and what they wanted to achieve and aim for," Merrick said.
"One of them was to get to the final of the pre-season cup because they want to start this season ready to go from the first league game.
"It became an important scenario for building that attitude."
The Victory have also been able to blend in their newcomers to the existing nucleus of a squad which dominated two seasons ago, but wobbled last season.
Brazilian striker Ney Fabiano, ex-Central Coast midfielder Tom Pondeljak and Socceroos defender Michael Thwaite have impressed on a march to tomorrow night's final achieved largely without star striker Archie Thompson and skipper Kevin Muscat.
Thompson is at the Olympic Games, while Muscat will again miss the match with a hamstring injury as Merrick keeps faith with the squad which beat Newcastle 1-0 last weekend.
"It's not good for the hamstring when you are in a stationary sitting position for a long period," Merrick said of Muscat.
"It's best that he gets himself right and he can train twice a day while he is back in Melbourne."
The Phoenix have also had significant input from their new signings, with ex-Central Coast attacker Adam Kwasnik and Newcastle midfielder Troy Hearfield impressing.
But skipper Andrew Durante, an off-season signing from Newcastle, will miss the match through suspension after being sent off last weekend in the fiery climax to the Phoenix's 3-2 win over Sydney FC.
A crowd of between 6,000 to 8,000 is expected for tomorrow night's match at Westpac Stadium.
