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Carlos Hernandez of Melbourne Victory in action during the round one A-League match between Sydney FC and the Melbourne Victory in Sydney on Saturday, Aug. 16, 2008. AAP Image/Jason McCawley
With all the hullabaloo surrounding Australia’s bid to host the World Cup, it’s been easy to overlook the burgeoning A-League title race. But with Melbourne Victory hosting Sydney FC next weekend, it’s time to put league action back in the spotlight.
The clash of the titans is one of the A-League’s genuine blockbusters, and Victory officials will hope to see fans pour through the Etihad Stadium turnstiles in season-high numbers.
Melbourne will be burning for revenge after Sydney dished out a 3-0 win at the same venue back in Round 10, and Victory are currently in form.
Since an uncharacteristic 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Central Coast Mariners in Round 14, Ernie Merrick’s men have taken ten points from their subsequent four games and scored nine goals in the process.
Sydney have been less conspicuous, recently snapping a recent three-game losing streak with back-to-back wins over North Queensland and Wellington Phoenix, although they’ve won the same number of games as Melbourne this season.
They haven’t always done it in quite the same cavalier style as the free-flowing Victory, but Vitezslav Lavicka’s team have shown that when the going gets tough, they’re capable of grinding out results.
Undoubtedly one of their best displays came in the thumping of Melbourne back in October, but their two-goal hero from that game Mark Bridge is still under an injury cloud.
The Sky Blues will also appeal the red card handed out to Simon Colosimo in the win over Wellington last weekend, but should the veteran defender miss out, former Victory man Sebastian Ryall could line up against his old club.
There are plenty of other intriguing match-ups, not the least the head-to-head duel between evergreen combatants Kevin Muscat and Steve Corica.
The latter has been in superb form this season, so much so that Fox commentator Robbie Slater recently claimed the harbour city side rely too heavily on the 36-year-old.
It’s not hard to see why, with Corica in sparkling form of late, and Sydney fans will hope to see the popular midfielder reprise his sterling efforts in the heart of enemy territory.
Now that Football Federation Australia has officially submitted documents to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup, there’s no better time for a crowd of more than 30,000 fans to turn out for this high-profile encounter.
There’ll be fewer fans inside Energy Australia Stadium the following afternoon for Newcastle’s meeting with North Queensland Fury, but bizarrely Branko Culina’s side could conceivably move into third – despite having languished near the bottom of the table for most of the season so far.
It’s testament to just how tight the finals race is, with sixth placed Perth Glory now looking nervously over their shoulders – not least because Chris Coyne, Jacob Burns and Mile Sterjovski could all head out on loan in January.
Meanwhile Central Coast Mariners will be looking to put struggling Brisbane Roar to the sword at Bluetongue Stadium, as the Gosford side look to put behind them their recent defeat to Melbourne.
But this weekend is all about another must-see clash between Melbourne and their old foes Sydney, with the bubbling animosity between Australia’s two largest cities set to overflow against the backdrop of one of the A-League’s biggest grudge matches.
My money is on Sydney to do the double over Melbourne in their own backyard, although that probably has more to do with my place of birth than any non-partisan analysis!
Whatever the outcome, it should be a cracker – as the A-League gets set to shake to the sounds of its own version of ‘El Clásico.’