Last weekend’s Melbourne derby lived up to its pre-match hype producing a tight thrilling contest, decided by Victory striker Berisha’s record equalling 90th A-League goal. Berisha is no longer the lone top marksmen still playing in the A-League. Joining him is Shane Smeltz who returns to the A-League from Malaysia, to bolster Phoenix’s attacking stocks till the end of the season.
Smeltz has 89 A-League goals to his name, just one behind equal joint leaders Berisha and Archie Thompson.
Heading into Rd 12 of the A-League, two tight clusters have formed on the A-League ladder. Seven points below the commanding leader Sydney FC sits a cluster of three teams, Victory, City, and Roar separated by just two points. The second cluster is even tighter with just three points separating the fifth-placed Jets from the 9th-placed Mariners.
This week’s round began last night in Brisbane with third-placed Roar hosting the seventh-placed Western Sydney Wanderers.
With a two-day break for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the rest of the round resumes with two Boxing Day matches.
Newcastle Jets v Wellington Phoenix, 5.35 pm Monday 26 December, McDonald James Stadium
A spot in the top six is up for grabs when these two meet in the first of the two Boxing Day matches. Both these sides have been inconsistent over the last five rounds although the Jets have won their last two matches. Last week’s last gasp winner in Adelaide took it into the top six ahead of the Wanderers and Glory. It will be looking to overturn the 2-0 loss to Phoenix when these sides last met in New Zealand five rounds ago. Phoenix striker Roy Krishna was on song that day scoring a brace. Last week, the Phoenix staged a second half fightback to peg back the Wanderers to 2-2. Phoenix also had keeper Glen Moss to thank for making a couple of crucial saves including a penalty kick.
Adelaide United V Sydney FC, 7.50 pm Monday 26 December, Coopers Stadium
It’s bottom side Adelaide hosting the undefeated Sky Blues in the second Boxing Day match. Reds fans watched in dismay last round as a precious point was snatched away from their team through a late Jets winner. Their team faces a much more challenging opponent this week in League leader Sydney FC which trounced Perth 4-1 in the west last round, with all their key forwards including Holosko finding the net. Another forward, Matt Simon, along with Josh Brillante return from suspension for the game against the Reds. This week Sydney also announced that coach Graham Arnold had signed a two-year extension to his contract.
Reds coach Amor has a full squad to choose from and he’ll be hoping for at least a repeat of the scoreless draw in Sydney the last time these two met a month ago.
Melbourne City v Perth Glory, 7.50 pm Tuesday 27 December, AAMI Park
Both City and Glory are coming off defeats at their last start. City’s loss in the derby means it slips out of the top two whilst Glory is barely hanging on to a place in the top six after last week’s heavy defeat at home to Sydney. Both teams have just the one win from their last five matches. Last time they met in October, Glory played a bold game to win 3-2 thanks in large part to an excellent Andy Keogh hat-trick. Glory coach Kenny Lowe may have Diego Castro and Adam Taggart available for this match.
Melbourne Victory v Central Coast Mariners, 7.50 pm Wednesday 28 December, AAMI Park
The form guide strongly favours a win to Victory whose confidence will be sky-high following the Melbourne derby win last round which lifted it into second place on the ladder.
For the second-last Mariners, last week’s loss to the Roar was its’ third loss in a row and it doesn’t get any easier as their next three matches (beginning with Melbourne Victory) are against the top four sides.
Playing against the side with the worse goal difference in the league, Victory appear to have too many options in attack with Berisha, Rojas, and Troisi supported by Beister and Ingham.
