Soccer-Positive Wanderers ready for another big ACL obstacle

SEOUL, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Western Sydney Wanderers manager Tony Popovic is confident his team will be much fitter for their Asian Champions League semi-final against FC Seoul than they were when they beat the defending champions in the last eight. Having disposed of Guangzhou Evergrande in the quarter-finals, Wanderers take on the team the Asian champions beat in last year's final in the first leg in the South Korean capital on Wednesday. Their bid to become the second Australian team to make the final of Asia's premier club competition has been complicated by the fact that the A-League season does not start until next month. While that remains a hindrance, Popovic believes a training camp in the United Arab Emirates and the inevitable improvement in fitness during pre-season will leave his team better prepared for the semi-final. "At this stage you expect to play the best and to win such a prestigious tournament you have to beat the best," he told reporters on Tuesday. "This is our pre-season still, we don't have a lot of match conditioning, but we believe we'll be a lot better prepared this time round. "We won't be at our best until midway through the A-League season, you can't shy away from that, but we will be better physically than we were against Guangzhou. "Also mentally, we'll be strong after getting through the semi-final against Guangzhou. And if we can put the improvement on the pitch, we have to be confident. "We're not here to make up the numbers. We're not here to just perform well, we want to go through." Wanderers will be without suspended striker Tomi Juric, who was credited with the winner in the first leg against Guangzhou, another forward in Brendon Santalab as well as midfielder Shannon Cole for the first leg. "The suspensions are something we can't control but the players that are here are very well-prepared," Popovic added. "It's a two-legged affair and we're confident we can put in a good performance tomorrow night and take a positive result back to Sydney. "We know we're up against good opponents (but) we've overcome some big obstacles to get to this stage." Popovic reiterated that Wanderers will not be going for a draw on Wednesday before taking the five-times K-League champions back to Sydney for the second leg on Oct. 1. "We haven't played a game yet that we don't go out to win," he said. "Tomorrow will be no different. Of course, the first leg's away, it's a good advantage to play the second leg at home. But if we go into tomorrow with a negative mindset, we'll be in trouble so we will be very positive tomorrow." (Reporting by Nick Mulvenney in Sydney, editing by Sudipto Ganguly)