sidelined

An awesome round is in the offing here, with two established grudge matches and two desperate teams staring at a miserable season battling it out with teams on the rise. Crunchtime is approaching, as several sides have the opportunity to consolidate top-four positions and challenge the Fisherfolk Hegemony for the no.1 spot.

Excellent…

Queensland Roar vs Wellington Pheonix 8pm 5/10/07 (all times in AEST, the only timezone that matters)

Tough one to pick. Queensland kicked MVFC’s arse last week, apart from that whole ‘scoring goals’ business, while Wellington shredded poor Perth Glory. Ante Milicic’s injury should see some of Frank’s youngsters come on, while Michael Zullo has earnt a start for his impressive winger antics. Daniel has picked up four yellows and a week off, so expect the hapless Ferrante to come on for the Pheonix. The situation is getting desperate for Farina and Co, ladder-wise, so expect full on attack and millions of shots on goal from the Orange team. Regardless of this, I smell a draw. 2-2.

H/T UPDATE: should get my nose checked. 1st half bracketed with two goals, the first a 4th minute screamer from Zullo, and an injury-time header from debutant Robbie Kruse. Speaking of injury time, several rough tackles on Felipe have resulted in him limping off, replaced by Paladini. Wellington 2-0 down without their most creative player have a massive task ahead.

F/T 2-1, Smeltz with a consolation goal in the dying seconds of extra time. Well, I don’t think even Frank was expecting that good a result, that soon. Zullo was farken dangerous on the left flank, to the point of giving himself cramp and limping off at ’72. More than a goalscorer, he also set up Reinaldo numerous times (he fluffed each one). Pheonix suffered from the loss of Daniel and Felipe and weren’t really in the game. The mid-table is even more congested now, with four teams on eight points (expect that to change) Roar are even luckier as their youngsters aren’t on Arnie’s Olyroo radar for the moment, they can keep them while AUFC, SFC, CCM et al. are deprived of the likes of Danny Vukovic, Bruce Djite, Mark Millgan, Nikolai Topor-Stanley etc., for the next two rounds.

Sydney FC vs Melbourne Victory 7pm 6/10/07

At last, the long-awaited showdown. Last season Victory had much the better of their clashes with the Skyblues, but now the worm has turned… into a shark. With a gun for a mouth…

Sorry, all the mescaline anticipation’s been getting to me. These are the most evenly matched SFC-MVFC squads since the days of V1, though I think the home side have the edge, especially in the midfield. Branko Culina has thus far showed faith in the squad that stared down Roar’s pyrotechnics and outclassed a lacklustre Jets, but the pressure remains to include captain Tony Popovic despite him er… not being all that great.

I’d worry about his inclusion and a back three weakining our defense down the wings but for the fact that Melbourne sans Caceres and Alessandro has shown little bite in that particular department; this is looking like a battle of the central mids. It remains to be seen wether Merrick will ditch the 7-0-3 formation and actually, you’know, play someone in attacking midfield. If he does we may see an interesting game, otherwise be prepared for SFC v Jets of last round with better strikers. And a few send-offs.

3-1 to the Skyblues.

UPDATE: Well… that was a little disappointing. A 24th minute brainfart saw Corica pick up a red, and deflated what had up until then been a tight contest between the two arch-rivals. Reduced to ten men against eleven (some would say twelve…) SFC fought valiantly but fell victim to a defensive blunder in the last ten minutes. While the home side struggled short of an influential playmaker, Melbourne for their part failed to capitalise on their numerical superiority and only looked dangerous in the last quarter. Archie and Alsopp were quite ordinary, though Leandro took up much of their slack. This is not the Melbourne of last year, nor the Victory that punished ten-man Sydney 5-0 in Season One. With a weak attacking midfield and aimless play they managed only eight shots to Sydney’s five and 49% possession (by contrast earlier in the round, Queensland against an enfeebled Wellington had 16 and 60% respectively).

Central Coast Mariners v Newcastle Jets 5pm, 7/10/07

The F3 Derby looks set to go off crowd-wise thanks to Lawrie McKinna’s awesome baiting of Jets fans, it now falls on the guys on the pitch to do their part. The Jets should be much improved with the return of Musialik and Joel Griffiths while Coast’s Nik Mrdja has again been sidelined with a knee injury, to the frustration of Fish-loving folk everywhere. Vidmar will also be absent with another suspension. Last week the Mariners showed themselves to be mere mortals after all, but can the Jets capitalise while they are still vulnerable? Will Dutchie again be forced to play the Pasha Bulker up front or has he shut up the Jardelistas with last week’s dismal showing? How many mini-bus vs shed banners will dot the stands?

2-1 Jets.

Perth Glory vs Adelaide United 7pm 7/10/07

What can you say? This looks like another drubbing for Glory.

Be Sociable, Share!

•