Editor
Sydney FC will head south full of confidence after last weekend’s 7-1 win when they face Melbourne Victory this afternoon to kick off an A-League Australia Day triple-header. We’ll have minute-by-minute updates from 5.30pm AEDT.
The sleeping giant, it seems, has finally awoken.
An unrelenting burst of five goals in 28 minutes, which saw Alessandro Del Piero net his first A-League hattrick, kickstarted Sydney FC’s stop-start season, and they went on to romp to a 7-1 victory in front of their home fans.
With new signing Joel Griffiths and Jason Culina also finding themselves on the scoresheet, the rout of Wellington was indicative of a side who have the necessary threats to challenge any A-League outfit on their day.
They’ll get a good measure of exactly how they are travelling this afternoon when they face a Melbourne Victory side sitting comfortably in third place.
Ange Postecoglou’s side have continued to build through the season, and a win over Sydney this afternoon would lift them above Adelaide into third position and only five points behind A-League leaders Central Coast.
After commanding performances last weekend, both Melbourne and Sydney will name virtually unchanged lineups and with no real injuries to speak of, we should be treated to a clash between two full-strength, in-form sides here.
Both sides possess serious attacking weapons – Rojas, Flores and Thompson for the home side and Del Piero, Griffiths and Culina for the Sky Blues – but the key to this one could be how the two sides’ defences stand up.
Sydney FC hold the worst defensive record in the A-League, and while Melbourne Victory’s back four has improved, they’ve also leaked 24 goals in 17 matches.
Sydney will come into this one expecting another strong performance after last week and if Tiago and Adam Griffiths can stand up at the back, they could get another result here.