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Sydney FC have started their A-League title defence with a narrow victory over Melbourne Victory on Saturday night.
Final score
Melbourne Victory 0
Sydney FC 1
If tonight’s blockbuster between defending premiers Sydney FC and finalists Melbourne Victory is anything like last season’s A-League grand final, fans should be in for a treat. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 7:50pm (AEDT).
Despite their complete dominance during the regular season, it took a dramatic penalty shootout for the Sky Blues to secure the championship against the Victory in an epic grand final that finished 1-1 in regular time.
Indeed the Victory opened the scoring through Besart Berisha in the grand final and Kevin Muscat’s men had opportunities in extra time to finish Sydney off, proving that Melbourne remains the main threat to Sydney’s ambition for back to back titles.
But if any team can conquer the odds, it’s Graham Arnold’s Sky Blues outfit.
Sydney has managed to retain the bulk of their grand final winning team, including Brazilian striker Bobo, who scored 15 goals last campaign, and Johnny Warren Medal winner Milos Ninkovic, while they’ve also acquired the likes of former Socceroos star Luke Wilkshire and Polish international midfielder Adrian Mierzejewski.
Furthermore, they aren’t losing any players to International duty this week – in deep contrast to Victory, who are without Mark Milligan, James Troisi and Kosta Barbarouses.
Victory again start the season with a formidable squad on paper, but the loss of the aforementioned trio for the first game – along with star winger Marco Rojas departing for the Netherlands – does hurt them, especially for such a big opening round game.
Kevin Muscat, like most A-League managers, has been busy in the transfer market, with the pick of his recruits for 2017/18 including Dutch attacker Leroy George, who can play either as a winger or striker, and Argentine central midfielder Matias Sanchez, a former Under 20s international for his country. Australian fullback Rhys Williams is also a tremendous coup.
While Victory again look like one of the leading challengers for the premiership, they have been hurt by the timing of the season’s launch coinciding with the international break.
Sydney has only gotten stronger this season and appears to be the team to beat once again.
At home, however, the Victory have what it takes to secure the three points – at full strength. Without Troisi, Milligan and Barbarouses however, the hosts may struggle to against the team they very nearly defeated when everything was on the line last season.
Sydney to win 2-1
Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 7:50pm (AEDT).