Two out-of-form sides meet each other tomorrow night at the Telstra Dome, in what is a key match for both of them.
Both the Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC have won one, lost two and drawn one of their last four games. And both will be missing key players tomorrow night. Melbourne are without Archie Thompson and Ney Fabiano (suspended), and will likely miss Nick Ward due to injury. Sydney’s problems are in defence, with Iain Fyfe suspended and Tony Popovic, Simon Colosimo and Jacob Timpano all injured. Alex Brosque is also injured.
So we have a side missing key strikers facing a side missing key defenders. Did I hear someone say a nil-nil draw?
Don’t laugh, it’s quite likely. The last three clashes between these sides have ended in a draw – twice a goal-less draw. Incidentally, all three of those games were during John Kosmina’s reign.
My tips for the weekend:
- Central Coast Mariners to lose to Newcastle Jets. If Newcastle can maintain the form they produced against Melbourne last week, they can certainly beat a Central Coast side that lost at home to the Wellington Phoenix last week.
- Melbourne Victory to finish with 11 men and beat Sydney FC. A draw may be likely, statistically speaking, but if Melbourne can hang on to their 11 men for the duration of the match, I think we can bring this run of draws to an end.
- Adelaide United to beat Perth Glory. Perth produced a good game last week to beat Sydney, but Adelaide are on an incredible roll at the moment. Perth stand a chance if they can take advantage of tired United legs.
- Wellington Phoenix to beat Queensland Roar. This is a critical game for both sides, as they’re perched just below the top four. With home crowd advantage and some good recent form, I think the Phoenix can steal the show.
2 comments ↓
Syd have definately been left with a second string defence but credit to Kossie for giving some younsters a run (although he probably doesn’t have many options).
If Celeski, Brebner and Lopez in midfield get only 50% of the ball they should provide enough opportunities for our non-prefered forward line of Allsopp, Hernandez and Pondeljak to undo the Sydney defence at least once.
If we can crack one goal Kossie will probably stack the defence to limit the damage which will guarantee a win. Lets hope he doesnt stack the defence too soon and kill off the match entirely.
Hopefully a big crowd will come out to watch a Melbourne Victory.
Not happy Jan!
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