Another packed stadium of Melbourne fans will be waiting for Melbourne Victory and Melbourne Heart tonight. The Derbies are fast becoming the showpieces of the A-league calendar, and tonight’s game will be nothing short of spectacular.
Melbourne Victory seem to have the edge over Heart this time, and will be desperately trying to clinch a few more points to finally score the top position. They have been in good form of late and are second in the standings, five points behind leaders Central Coast.
Heart have lost two of their past three and are in sixth position with bottom-of-the-table Wellington only four points behind. They are also without some star players, with Vince Grella retiring and Aziz Behich off to play for Turkish team Bursaspor.
Victory is consolidating it’s team, with just this Thursday announcing it had extended Nick Ansell, Leigh Broxham and Lawrence Thomas’ contacts.
Ansell and Broxham have signed contracts that will see them through until the end of the 2015/16 season, while Thomas will remain at the club until at least the end of the 2014/15 season.
It might be a chance to see some of the new Victory recruits hit the pitch, including young striker Jesse Makarounas who played well in the youth league last weekend.
Heart Coach John Aloisi will be hoping to make up for lack of powerful players with an injection of youth into the team, with players such as Sam Mitchinson, Ben Garuccio, Jeremy Walker and David Vrankovic all possibilities.
In the last two Derbies, both sides have come out with a win, but it has been Melbourne Heart that has had the better luck in general.
Third-placed Western Sydney Wanderers and fourth-placed Adelaide United just a point behind Victory, meaning a loss could drastically change their ladder position.
Heart has struggled to get wins outside of home soil, and coach Aloise knows that.
“We didn’t perform but now we’ve got to look forward because we’ve got the derby and the good thing about that is, in Melbourne, we seem to perform well,” Aloisi said.
“At the moment, away from home, we’re struggling a bit.”
Aloisi acknowledged they would have to improve their away form if they were to make the finals.
Date: Saturday February 2, 2013
Kick-off: 7.45pm AEST, 7.45 local
Venue: Etihad Stadium