Once every four years, the Devils get that little bit of extra juice.

With the world game playing out to billions around the globe, Wangaratta City FC will look to channel the Socceroos spirit into their matches over the next few weeks.

Senior men’s coach Vitaly Leschen said it was a special time to be playing the game.

“It just builds excitement around the sport, that excitement goes down to grassroots, it’s built from 2006 and Aloisi,” he said.

“It’s a nice time to celebrate the sport we give a lot of our time to, and hopefully it adds a couple per cent to the boys on the weekend.”

Heading into the second week of their five-match stretch before their next bye, the division one men’s side takes on Albury United at Jelbart Park West this weekend.

It’s a perfect opportunity to come back from last weekend’s commendable 0-1 loss to ladder leaders Albury City, with United sitting eighth overall with four wins, six losses and a draw to date.

For the Devils, given ladder position, it’s shaping up as a must-win encounter.

“For us, it just makes the next two games against [Albury] United and Boomers very important to win,” Leschen said.

“It probably means we’re out of contention for the league now, so now it’s about consolidating our spot in finals and pushing as high up on the ladder as we can.

“These next two games are must-wins for us, because it relieves pressure into the second half of the year.

“If we lose or drop points here, we have pressure from underneath us and it makes life a bit harder - it means we can’t rest players, it means we have to select our best 11, risk players, and we want to avoid that and build for finals.”

Leschen said they‘d be playing with more intent this weekend after potentially being too passive in their previous match with Albury City.

“The message after Albury City was that we have to play 90 minutes of football, we have to work hard for 90 minutes,” he said.

“There are going to be a few changes due to injuries and red cards – Lorenzo [Cecchini] got red carded, Stoych [Stoycho Ivanov] is still out, and Ash Primerano was injured on the weekend.

“We’ve got Archer Hill coming back in, and Luke Simian coming back in as well.

“These are two players who I know want to be playing senior football, the opportunity has presented itself in a big game, so hopefully they can the rest of the boys can push us to a win.”

The division one men’s side takes on Albury United at Jelbart Park West from 3pm on Sunday.

The division two women have the weekend off with the bye.