Win or bust for Tratt
Jacob Tratt and Sydney United 58 FC are refusing to let last week’s last-minute Major Semi Final loss to Blacktown City FC get them down.
If anything, Tratt thinks he and his team’s performance last week proved they are good enough to win the PlayStation® 4 National Premier Leagues New South Wales Men’s championship.
United are already premiers, having run away with the league title, while they also took out the Waratah Cup and despite losing to a last-minute Danny Choi winner last week, Tratt believes his team are still good enough to win everything.
"I think the big thing from the weekends game was that I feel like we dominated proceedings," Tratt said.
"The ball just did not want to go into the back of the net.
"We take confidence from that. We know that deep down when the time comes we will be able to take those chances and that serves us well leading up to this weekend’s game."
Not that Tratt expects Bonnyrigg White Eagles FC to roll over in the Preliminary Final.
The reigning PS4 NPL NSW Men’s champions know how to win finals, but Tratt said they will face a determined Sydney United 58 FC this week.
"We’ve got two wins from two against Bonnyrigg this season, so that is a plus for us," Tratt said.
"I think we have the players and the ability to get the win.
"Obviously it’s a derby game so both teams are motivated to win and it increases the desire all around.
"But we put the same amount of pressure on ourselves to win every game. We always expect to win.”
The former Sydney FC defender praised coach Mark Rudan and the club as a whole for instilling such a winning mentality in the team.
"This club is exceptional. Honestly, the morale here is second to none," Tratt said.
"It’s one of the best clubs I have been a part of. It’s rare to be at a club where all the players, all the coaches share the exact same goal and push each other like we do here.
"And Mark, honestly, he has helped me massively.
"He’s a big reason that I came here. He was a defender at Sydney FC too and I knew that I could try and extract as much information as I could from him about defending and all
the different techniques to become a better defender.
"He is a massive part of why I have improved so much in the last six months."
But as far as Tratt and his team-mates have come this season, he admitted that the team would unlikely be satisfied without a championship to show for it all.
"We set out wanting to be the best United team there has been in the Premier League," Tratt said.
"I think we were one point off matching the club’s best ever points tally in the league. We’ve won the league and we’ve won the cup.
"But there is still a massive desire to win the grand final and we are doing everything possible to make that happen."
-By Matt Galea
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