Central Coast Mariners players visited the A-Bomb Dome, Peace Park, & Memorial Museum on Tuesday morning, before getting down to training in the afternoon.
Central Coast Mariners continued their preparations for Wednesday-s crucial 2014 AFC Champions League Group F match against Sanfrecce Hiroshima on Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning, the Club incorporated into its ritual team walk a visit to the site of the 1945 Atomic Bomb blast.
It was there that the Club-s players had the chance to pay their respects to the victims of the tragedy that took the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
After honouring the fallen civilians at the Hiroshima A-Bomb Dome and Peace Park, a number of Mariners players and staff continued on to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum to learn more about the devastating effects the disaster had on the city, its people, and indeed Japan.
“Obviously we went to visit the memorial this morning, and it was our way of paying tribute to Hiroshima and the people of Hiroshima,” Central Coast Mariners Head Coach Phil Moss said at the Club-s official pre-match press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
“It was a very moving morning and I know we all appreciated the enormity of what this great city has been through in the past.”
“It is a real sign of their fighting spirit and character how they have rebounded from such a monumental disaster.”
“It is a beautiful city full of beautiful people and we have really enjoyed our stay here, and that was our way of paying our respects.”
Defender Eddy Bosnar, who played in Japan for JEF United Chiba and Shimizu S-Pulse previously, added: “I have been to the Peace Park a few times, and it always gives you memories of something that did happen really badly for a country and for a city.”
“In Australia we are very fortunate that that nothing has happened to our country, but it-s happened to a lot of countries abroad. When you come to places like this it opens up your eyes to see how lucky we really are,” he said.
On Tuesday afternoon, Central Coast Mariners trained at the Hiroshima Big Arch Stadium – the scene of Wednesday-s Group F showdown between the yellow and navy and purple-whites.
Mariners boss Moss said his team would enter Wednesday-s encounter with confidence, but as the underdogs.
“Obviously Sanfrecce go into tomorrow night-s game as favourites, they-re at home and they haven-t had the travel,” he said. “But we are made of a very tough mentality in Australia, my players don-t have any excuses, we-re a Club that has no excuses.”
“We-ve got a lot of confidence [and] we-ve had some fantastic results back home. We went through a lean spell in February in our competition back home, we-ve come out of that, finished the regular season in third spot and we-re through to the semi-finals.”
“So there-s a lot of confidence in our group at the moment, we know it will be a tough game tomorrow night but we-re ready for the battle.”
“We intend to fight tooth and nail tomorrow night to get the three points,” he said.
Meanwhile, Bosnar joked that he-s disappointed he won-t get to “kick” the best man from his wedding, Sanfrecce-s Mihael Mikic, when the teams meet on Wednesday evening.
Mikic has been ruled out of the clash due to injury.
“Mihael Mikic is one of my best friends and a very close family friend of my whole family and my wife also,” Bosnar said.
“I am a little bit disappointed he is not playing tomorrow night because I wanted to kick him – I saw him yesterday and we joked about it.”
I have known him for many years, we were in Japan together and it-s good that we play Club against Club, but it’s a little bit disappointing that he-s not playing tomorrow.”
“On the other hand it-s good for us because I think he is probably one of the best foreign players that has ever played for Hiroshima,” he concluded.
CLICK HERE TO SEE IMAGES OF THE TEAM IN HIROSHIMA (DAY 2).
Central Coast Mariners Squad vs. Sanfrecce Hiroshima: 1. Justin PASFIELD (Gk), 3. Josh ROSE, 5. Zac ANDERSON, 6. Brent GRIFFITHS, 7. John HUTCHINSON (C), 9. Mitchell DUKE, 11. Nick FITZGERALD, 12. Liam REDDY (Gk), 13. Hayden MORTON, 15. Storm ROUX, 17. Anthony CACERES, 20. Bernie IBINI, 21. Mile STERJOVSKI, 25. Eddy BOSNAR, 26. KIM Seung-yong, 27. Isaka CERNAK, 28. Glen TRIFIRO, 29. Matt SIM
Sanfrecce Hiroshima vs. Central Coast Mariners – 2014 AFC Champions League Matchday 6 (Group F)
Wednesday 23 April 2014
Hiroshima Big Arch Stadium, Hiroshima, Japan
Kick-off: 7:30pm (local), 8:30pm (AEST)
Twitter: Join the match conversation on Twitter using #HIRvCCM, #ACL2014 & #CCMFC
Television: Watch LIVE on FOX SPORTS 3 & 3HD
