The Melbourne derby dominates an A-League Rd 11 triple-header of matches today, whilst the round pits the top two sides against lowly opposition.
Saturday’s action kicks off across the ditch on the Westpac Stadium pitch in Wellington.
Wellington Phoenix V Sydney City FC, Sat 19th Dec, 5.15 pm Westpac Stadium
Sixth placed Phoenix host the fifth placed City in a match up which appears even on paper, although Phoenix has the slightly better recent form. Both teams will be keen to get back on the winning track to stay in touch with the leaders after suffering 2-1 losses on the road last week. Wellington has won its last three home matches, whilst Sydney has won just one of its last five games. Sydney is likely to be without injured forward Alex Brosque. At the other end it will need to stay compact in defense to close down the speed king Roy Krishna and the equally dangerous Roly Bonevacia.
Expect more goals in this match than the dour scoreless draw they played out in their previous meeting just three weeks ago.
Melbourne City v Melbourne Victory, Sat 19th Dec, 7.30 pm AAMI Park
A month is a long time in football. Whilst City’s stocks have risen following its goal-scoring spree of late, preseason favorite Melbourne Victory has lost some of its luster losing three in a row for the first time since 2013.
Add the fact that it’s Victory’s third match in eight days, with extreme temperatures forecast, City fans could be excused for thinking it’s team has a great chance of reversing the result of their first meeting earlier this season when the Victory ran out winners.
Defender Aaron Hughes has been named in the City squad as Connor Chapman misses due to a knee injury, whilst Victory welcomes back defenders Mathieu Delpierre and Thomas Deng, also naming Archie Thompson in the squad.
Critical matchups are likely all over the park. In the middle, Victory’s Rashid Mahazi who has stepped into the defensive midfielder role vacated by an ill Carl Valeri, will have the job of keeping City playmaker and goalscorer Aaron Mooy from creating havoc, whilst at the other end City’s Erik Paartalu will be trying to keep Victory playmaker Gui Finkler quiet.
Both teams boast lethal force down the flanks where City’s Harry Novillo has been shredding defenses whilst Barbarouses and Ben Khalfallah provide the threat for Victory. Both teams have proven goal scorers up front with the league’s top marksmen in Bruno Fornaroli and Berisha Beshart.
Perth Glory v Western Sydney Wanderers, Saturday 19th December 9.40 pm, NIB Stadium
Despite posting back-to-back wins for the first time this season, Perth Glory still have a long way to go match it with Tony Popovic’s table topping Wanderers which will be looking to extend its winning streak to eight matches.
The midweek win over Melbourne Victory thanks to Diego Castro’s 74th minute match winner, has revived the Perth club’s hopes of making finals particularly with news that it has signed striker Andy Keogh who is set to return in January. However it’s a tall ask to expect Glory, which is playing its third match in a row, to stop the Wanderers’ match winners Castelen, Mitch Nichols and Mark Bridges from firing their team to an eighth straight win.
