The front of site blog isn’t allowing me to post the match preview so I’ll just put it here for now…
Match Preview
This is it. The biggest regular season game of the season, every season. Our old rivals in the traditional public holiday long weekend fixture. Judging by ticket sales there will be several hundred of us going down there and we really have to make this like a home fixture. Not only will it be a game against our traditional rivals, but it is also a crucial game for keeping us in the running for the title race and, just as importantly, keeping Melbourne out of the title race.We can feel relief that Honda is out for this game, but even without him Melbourne’s attack has been looking in good form, scoring 10 goals in the last 3 games. Toivonen has lit up the league more than some expected and even Troisi has been playing well. Antonis picked up where he left off last season and is looking like one of the best midfielders in the league. If this Victory side has a weakness, however, it is their defence. They shipped 3 goals against Wellington last weekend and have conceded 18 this season. Unfortunately, they didn’t have to play a midweek fixture and so they come into this game with an extra half a week’s rest. Fortunately for us, they have had to spend that time in a heatwave.
Our defence will take comfort from the fact that we have had two straight clean sheets and, even if our back line looks very make-shift, Warland and Wilkinson look like they have been playing together for years. O’Neill has also taken a step-up in the last two games, providing good cover for the defenders as they need it.
With De Jong and Caceres out injured for this game, we are most likely going to revert to the same 4-4-2 which we finished the previous game with. De Silva is the obvious candidate to start on the right and Brosque will certainly be starting next to Le Fondre . Given that we are likely to be under sustained pressure for a decent part of this game, having those three available for counter-attacks could prove valuable for providing us with some scoring opportunities. One of our big problems will be that our bench is going to look very young, with Retre probably the only experienced head there. Still, Devlin and Ivanovic have both shown glimpses of quality this season and this could be a big chance for them to make names for themselves.
I predict that we will line up like this:
Previous Matches
Head-to-Head
Wins: 15 (31.9%)
Draws: 17 (36.2%)
Losses: 15 (31.9%)
Sydney FC record at AAMI Park
Wins: 7 (33.3%)
Draws: 8 (38.1%)
Losses: 6 (28.6%)
Last 5 Matches
25/11/18 – Sydney FC 1 – 2 Melbourne
28/04/18 – Sydney FC 2 – 3 Melbourne
13/04/18 – Sydney FC 1 – 0 Melbourne
26/01/18 – Melbourne 1 – 3 Sydney FC
7/10/17 – Melbourne 0 – 1 Sydney FC
Records
Biggest Win – 5 goals:
26/01/14 – Melbourne 0 – 5 Sydney FC
Biggest Loss – 5 goals:
16/10/05 – Melbourne 5 – 0 Sydney FC
Most Goals in a Game – 6 goals:
7/08/10 – Sydney FC 3 – 3 Melbourne
13/12/14 – Melbourne 3 – 3 Sydney FC
14/02/15 – Sydney FC 3 – 3 Melbourne
14/11/15 – Sydney FC 2 – 4 Melbourne
Most Appearances vs Victory – Alex Brosque (29)*
Most Goals vs Victory – David Carney and Mark Bridge (5)
Key Statistics
- Sydney FC ’s record in Australia Day fixtures against Victory is 3 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses.
- Sydney FC are undefeated in their last 4 games in Melbourne against Victory.
- Victory is the only club that Milos Ninkovic hasn’t scored against in the A-League.
- Given that Corica will be forced to make changes through injury, this will be the fifth unique starting XI in a row.
Note: Appearances and goals only include league games, finals, FFA Cup, OFC and AFC Champions League and Club World Cup.