Canberra United players swapped their studs for futsal boots when poor air quality forced the W-League side to move their training session indoors.
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Club officials decided to postpone their annual fan day and shift training to an indoor basketball court on Friday after the city was again blanketed by smoke haze from the surrounding bushfires.
The Canberra air quality was marked as hazardous at the Florey air quality station at 8am on Friday, with temperatures expected to reach 40 degrees.
The indoor training session was their final chance to prepare at home before flying interstate for their round-six clash against Adelaide United on Sunday.
Canberra coach Heather Garriock admitted the changes have made it difficult to prepare properly for Adelaide, but said overcoming adversity will only strengthen the players.
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"It's not easy, especially when you have to critique things but that's what we prepare for," Garriock said.
"We can't help the weather and the most important thing is to keep everybody safe.
"I thought we improvised well despite being indoors. We still got to do our tactics and passing practices for exactly what we're doing to do on the pitch.
"We'll definitely get a big session on Saturday in Adelaide. We'll train and be able to get some main messages in there, especially with set plays."
Club officials have also been forced to shift training to 6.45am to beat the heat and smoke haze over the past fortnight, with the latest change adding another curve-ball to a hectic week for United.
Canberra will play two matches in five days over the Christmas period, having just four days to turnaround and prepare for their Boxing Day clash with the Western Sydney Wanderers at McKellar Park.
"It's not ideal but we knew that going into this season," Garriock said.
"We've trained for it and the turnaround around is quite tough but again, we're prepared for it and focus in on this weekend is the most important thing. We'll focus on the Wanderers game after we get the three points [on Sunday]."
United have struggled to find consistency in the first month of the W-League season with two wins, two losses and a draw, while Adelaide have endured a slow start to their campaign with four losses.
Midfielder Laura Hughes is confident Canberra can turn things around against Adelaide but says they won't take the South Australians lightly.
"I think they've been very unlucky, we won't take them lightly and treat it like every other game," Hughes said.
"They're a very good quality side and have some good defenders, Amber Brooks is probably their best player in the back-line.
"Then they've got quality up front with Mary Fowler, she can shoot with both feet. We've worked on our tactics this week and hopefully we can get the three points."
W-LEAGUE ROUND SIX
Adelaide United v Canberra United at Adelaide, 4pm.
