Sydney FC and Melbourne City meet at Allianz Stadium in the opening match of Round 11 in the A-League. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 7:50pm (AEDT).
The last few weeks have seen the Champions of Australia start to hit their straps and bear their teeth.
Sydney come off four successive wins and they are setting a cracking pace at the top of the ladder.
Melbourne City have done well to hang onto Sydney’s tail and a tough victory against the Mariners last week still sees them within reach of the leaders.
A win tonight and City will look a team whose season is back on track after some patchy form that has seen them grind out wins rather than clinically dispose of the opposition.
Sydney come into this game off the back of the thrashing they handed the Wanderers last week and will feel amazing levels of confidence considering the style of football they have been producing in recent weeks.
In an amazing addition, Sydney welcome back their most influential player in Milos Ninkovic and apart from the long-term injury to Rhyan Grant, are at full strength.
City lose Bruce Kamau for this game and their injury list is starting to look a little concerning.
However, the consistent Neil Kilkenny comes back in and the visitors will still put a strong squad on the park for this important clash in the context of their season.
Prediction
It is hard to see anything but a Sydney victory here, such is their form and confidence. It is, however, usually tight between these two sides.
Sydney FC 2, Melbourne City 1.
Catch all the action on The Roar live coverage from 7:50pm (AEDT).
punter
Guest
Again 100% correct, again, while I thought Bobo (even as a SFC) should have been sent off, others may have a different opinion & that was the case of some other SFC fans, but Muscat's elbow, was no argument.
Worried
Guest
Another Sydney F.C. DIVE! Bo Bo is bulletproof in Blue shirt! When will the Referees director DO something. We may as well call off the A-League and just GIVE SYD FC the trophy, they will cheat till they get it anyway!
Nemesis
Guest
No. 2 reviews are awful way to adjudicate on anything. Why 2? Why not 1? Why not 5? Why not 10? This is a trial phase for VAR around the world. Maybe IFAB will decide it is not good for the game & it will be abandoned. Maybe IFAB will say it is only used for: 1) reviewing whether a goal is scored 2) reviewing whether an offside occurred in the scoring of a goal Both of these are facts which, in many cases, only a video replay can identify.
Nemesis
Guest
Let's be clear none of us can claim "VAR was wrong". Why? Because each of us can look at a piece of evidence & we can then form a different opinion about what occurred. So, I can look at the Bobo incident & think: Red Card Another person can look at the same video and think: play on, part of the game. Another can look at the same video & think: Yellow Card. None of us are right. None of us are wrong. But, in football, only one decision has authority: the ref. So, Bobo's action was reviewed by VAR & the VAR decided it was not a clear Red Card. We can disagree with the decision. We cannot say: that the decision is wrong. It's just a different decision than we might make.
Redondo
Guest
I agree. But the VAR does spoil the flow badly. Would it be better if the VAR was used like the cricket? Each team gets 2 reviews and the VAR is only used when one team asks for a review.
jupiter53
Roar Pro
My guess at the game was that Evans thought the advantage had been lost as the City forward was shepherded wider and deeper on the right. But it may just have been a bad decision. I presume you saw it on TV with a wider view so would bow to your judgement. I thought City were by far the most difficult opponents that SFC have faced this season [no disrespect to Mariners, but Sydney were bad that day, and pretty good last night]. They were really quick to effectively harass Sydney players in the buildup, and in particular they showed that Brillante and Tintin are not yet the finished article. They were unlucky that McCormack was injured; it would have been interesting to see what he did with the free kick that Brattan bombed over the bar. Muscat of course is always a red card waiting to happen [reminds me of Terry McFlynn, with the difference that Terry had poor judgment of tackles he could make, whereas Manny is more a dirty player]. I expect City to finish in the top 3, and as their injured players return, I think they could cause a lot of trouble for any opponent in the finals.
Redondo
Guest
Ignoring the VAR for a moment - Daniel Arzani looks like a great prospect. I haven’t seen much of him - is he always that good?
jupiter53
Roar Pro
In regard to Bobo, I presume that the match review panel will catch up with him. It has always been the case that incidents behind play get missed; I remember seeing Tony Henderson of Marconi punch and knock down a Sydney Olympic forward at Pratten Park when all the match officials were looking at play at the other end. Are you arguing that VAR should be extended so that the VAR referee has discretion to intervene in this sort of case? And obviously all decision making is subjective whether on or off the field. It seems to me that having the goal correctly awarded, having the penalty decision confirmed, and having Muscat correctly sent off for a spectacular elbow were all good. I think there is a reasonable argument that last night the game was "better" for VAR. It certainly wasn't worse.
Stevo
Roar Rookie
So if Bobo had have been sent off for a behind the scene studs challenge on Muscat it would have meant that SFC was down a man. Who knows where the game would have gone from there. Goal line technology fine, but using VAR to replace the subjective on field decision making with the subjective off field decision is not making the game any better.
punter
Guest
Exactly right, the VAR had 4 decisions to be made, with 3 correct. As Nemesis mentioned 1) City’s goal woud have been missed. 2) Manny Muscat would’ve stayed on the pitch. Both correct 3) did not overrule penalty Again right. 4) Bobo's stomp, yes should have been sent off in my opinion. So again without VAR, we would be complaining about the first 2 decisions being poor referee calls.
Nemesis
Guest
What was the impact of VAR on this match? Without VAR: 1) City's goal woud have been missed. 2) Manny Muscat would've stayed on the pitch. Yup. Without VAR there would be no controversy after this match.
Kangajets
Guest
Agree
LuckyEddie
Guest
Sepp Blater might have been very dodgy but he was correct about one thing - in that if technology gets its way into football it will destroy it.
Kangajets
Guest
I feel for u Steve . The game needs to decided by players not bad refs in the var . It’s killing my spirt this var
Kangajets
Guest
Stuart I’m losing faith when I see the var stuff the game like tonigjt . Doesn’t matter who won . The var just kills my love of football
Stevo
Roar Rookie
I know we did ourselves no favours towards the end of the first half, I’m looking at Schenkers and maybe Booooozanis, but the officiating that followed was a farce and disgrace to the beautiful game. Evans pulling up play as we were about to enter the box so that he could give us a free kick outside the box for some mysterious reason is beyond a joke. Bobo ... well how is this guy a protected species?
LuckyEddie
Guest
WE go to games to get away from technology and all that IT garbage and now it stuffs up football as well. Who ever came up with VARS should turned into one of those non-binary things.
Stuart Thomas
Expert
Hopefully match report is fair.
Stuart Thomas
Expert
Sydney FC have defeated Melbourne City at Allianz in what will prove a controversial clash. It would be nice to get through a week without some VAR controversy, however, week eleven of the A-League season will not be that week, as the technology has once again had a major influence on the result. Sydney started the game well and looked solid early before City actually began to dominate possession through the middle period of the first half. No goals came early and the contest was nothing to write home about until Luke Brattan produced a stunning strike that appeared to cross the line. The game continued and it was only the conformation of the VAR that permitted the goal and the home crowd were stunned, as their team went down a goal after believing this was to be the night where they would extend their unbeaten run on home turf. City appeared to have the quality to complete the half in front yet in the most astonishing three minutes Mierzejewski scored from a free kick on the edge of the box before Buijs was man-handled in the area and Bobo slotted home the spot kick. From a solid one-nil lead, City went into the break a goal down and Sydney were lucky to be level, let alone in front. Graham Arnold would have given his charges a bollocking after the first half performance, however, City started the better in the second period and looked dangerous. In an unsavoury incident, Bobo appeared to use his boot to attack his direct opponent and despite the moment being clear on television footage, there was no action from the VAR. Remember this for later. When Michael Zullo went down after a nasty stray elbow from Manny Muscat, the VAR chose to intervene and Muscat saw red, leaving many wondering how Bobo had escaped sanction. It destroyed what was developing into a tight contest yet Melbourne showed much might and did create a few chances in the last twenty. Sadly for City a long free kick late in the game found the head of Matt Simon and Brosque latched onto the service to score the third for Sydney. The champions will walk away with another win and no one would suggest they deserved to lose the match, however, it would have been nice to see the contest play out fairly without the irritating influence of the technology that, once again, appears to have ruined an interesting game of football. Final Score Sydney FC 3 Melbourne City 1
Kangajets
Guest
Bizarre free kick when city had the advantage