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Last-placed Melbourne Heart will be desperate for a win when they host Sydney FC at AAMI Park this evening. We’ll have live scores and commentary from 7.30pm AEDT.
The pressure is growing on Melbourne Heart coach John Aloisi as the Melbourne side has managed just two points from its first five games this year.
They will gain some confidence from knowing that their last win came against the side they are playing this week – the victory was a 3-1 defeat of the Sky Blues in February at AAMI Park.
Another interesting stat for this game is that Sydney FC has never won at AAMI Park; in the seven matches they have played at the Melbourne venue they have managed just five draws and two losses.
Anything less than the three points here and the pressure will go back on Frank Farina, Sydney managed to beat the Melbourne Victory in a classic ‘Big Blue’ last week where all five goals were scored in the first 36 minutes.
The problem with Sydney FC this year is that they continue to leak goals; their only clean sheet for the year was in Round 1 against Newcastle who had their own scoring problems.
In the five matches they have played so far they have leaked a total of nine goals, which is the most in the league.
This could be an advantage for the Heart who have managed to create enough chances to win games, they have just fail to finish them.
Last week they had 19 shots on goal which was six more than what the Wanderers had, however just two of those shots were on target and 12 of the shots were from outside the box.
The game changer – Alessandro Del Piero
It had to be him didn’t it? The Italian maestro is the centre piece of the sky blue outfit and at the spritely age of 39 he doesn’t look like slowing down anytime soon.
He drew criticism during the week for going to ground too easy after he was fouled 12 times last week, however as we have learnt before clever players can draw fouls as they please.
His class and skill will shine against a team that has really failed to hurt their opposition this year.
Prediction
Both teams want this game, however languishing at the bottom of the ladder isn’t something that the Heart need.
Expect them to find their identity in this game against a team that has traditionally struggled at AAMI Park.
Heart 2-1 Sydney
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