Victory only option for Valeri in China

MELBOURNE Victory captain Carl Valeri says the time for excuses is running out.

Instead of playing an ALeague game this weekend, Valeri and his Victory teammates head to China at 8am today ahead of Tuesday night’s Asian Champions League clash with Shanghai SIPG.

Victory is yet to win a game overseas in 16 Champions League attempts, with only six draws thrown in.

It has had one draw and three losses in games in China.

But being able to fly north a day earlier — and without the lag of having played 90 taxing minutes on the weekend — means Victory is as primed as ever to break its duck.

“It’s improving, it’s definitely improving,” Valeri said.

“The game is taking steps in the right direction and especially at Victory, where they really look after us and do everything they can to help us in the competition.

“There’s always room for improvement, but that’s for down the track.

“Right now, we know the situation we’re in. We’re going to Shanghai and with no ALeague game on the weekend we’ll be well rested thanks to the fixture provided by FFA, so we think we can give it a good crack.”

Victory will travel with basically the same squad that drew 3-3 with Ulsan Hyundai in Tuesday night’s opening game, only with Thomas Deng replacing Cameron McGilp now the defender has recovered from injury.

Valeri said he thought the Ulsan display was “a good performance” but lamented that “those guys were there for the taking” given they are still in pre-season.

It is the same story for Shanghai, with its Chinese Super League season not kicking off until March 3.

But while the Hulk and Oscar-inspired powerhouse defeated Kawasaki Frontale 1-0 in Tokyo on Tuesday, Valeri said Victory was confident of getting a result.

“Away form for all ALeague teams in Asia has generally been pretty poor,” he said.

“But that’s just a fact and it’s in the past. We’ve got to go over there with the right mentality.

“There are obviously a lot of areas where we can still improve. But to play like we did against Ulsan straight after a poor performance like the one we had against Brisbane I think was a step in the right direction and a positive sign.”