It was Branko Culina who was hobbling this afternoon after the Sydney FC maestro – who's hoping to inflict pain on Urawa Red Diamonds this Wednesday night in the ACL - strained his calf muscle at today's FC training session.

At the team walk later in the day, a limping Culina told au.fourfourtwo.com: “It's age catching up with me!”

The 50-year-old had his side focussing on shape and tactics at the session ahead of the must-win showdown with the cashed up J-League kings Urawa Reds.

“It was a lighter session today as we've trained quite hard since we've been here so we're tapering towards Wednesday night," FC striker David Zdrilic told au.fourfourtwo.com.

"We worked on team shape today and to finetune a few tactical areas,”

The whole squad was awestruck by the Reds' training facilities where they trained today.

“The facilities are for a big club. There are not many clubs that have what Urawa Red Diamonds have – they are one of the best," added Zdrilic.

The facilities put the spotlight on FC's ad hoc training facilities back in Sydney.

The club train at a variety of locations, including a public park behind Parramatta stadium.

Not that Zdrilic is putting too much store in the disparity in money and facilities ahead of the big match on Wednesday.

“At the end of the day sure you may have everything behind you, but it's 11 v 11 and we've already shown that we can more than match it with the Reds and other teams," he said.

"And with a bit of luck we'd be in with an even better chance of going through. We are very positive but on our day, we can defeat them.

"And the way I see it, there's a lot of pressure on them." said Zdrilic.

"If things don't go their way early on, the pressure might get to them. It's like our game with Shanghai Shenhua in Sydney.

"We needed to score and we were trying and trying and you really feel it. Hopefully that'll be the same for them and we can get in their face,”

Less impressive is Saitama itself - a place duller than John Howard playing Tiddlywinks.

With downtown Tokyo deemed too far away for a quick trip, the FC players and support staff have been wiling away their time in between training at various coffee shops and shopping malls in the least attractive-looking town FourFourTwo has visited. Ever.

But all that will be forgotten if on Wednesday night if they come away from the cauldron of the Reds Wonderland with maximum points.

Even the hobbling Branko Culina will celebrate that.