FTS A-League Round 9 Preview: Melbourne City vs. Brisbane Roar
A win for Brisbane on Wednesday night over struggling Western Sydney sees them enter the top six for the first time this season. New coach Frans Thijssen will want to see his team remain where they belong. This Sunday they travel to Melbourne to take on the also struggling City.
City was embarrassed across the ditch last week 5-1 where a Nathan Burns hat-trick could’ve been even more. Defensive errors continue to haunt the club as they fall out of the six and out of favour with many fans. The City faithful will be hoping the club picked up some football skills via the duty free counter when the club returned to no doubt a tough week on the training track.
Key players are missing from both clubs with Thomas Broich and Robert Koren headlining this. Both these teams will be far better after the January break for the Asian Cup, but gaining three points is crucial over the next month as the top four teams continue to run away from the remainder of the league. Clubs in the lower half of the league must keep pace with the top six, especially over the very busy December period.
During the week Roar keeper Jamie Young claimed his first clean sheet at the club, something counterpart Andrew Redmayne hasn’t done since March 1st. Defensively City is a mess at the moment and defensive options are very limited in Van’t Ship’s midfield based squad. Defensively Brisbane looked well organized under their new coach but it’s going forward that concerns most.
Expect a stop start game played by two teams woefully out of form. A win for either team will see them back in the top six but until key players from both clubs return from injury. Until then City and Brisbane will continue to run on fumes.
Eyes On… David Williams continues to struggle in front of goal but this week he could turn that all around. The fitness of Williams is gradually improving and his you cannot fault his positioning going forward. His finishing hasn’t been great but the penalty from last week and knowing he has scored against Brisbane already this season could give the 122 game veteran the boost to his confidence he severely needs.
Form Guide
Head to Head:
Played: 13 Melbourne City: 5 Draws: 2 Brisbane Roar: 6
Last time they met:
08/11/2014 – Melbourne City 3 defeated Brisbane Roar 1 at Suncorp Stadium in their only win for the season so far.
Form Guide:
Melbourne City: LWDLL Brisbane Roar: LWLDW
Absentee List
Melbourne City: Jonathan Germano (hamstrings 3-4 weeks), Robert Koren (calf 2 weeks), Liam Miller (1 week)
Brisbane Roar: Michael Theo (wrist – 3 weeks), Thomas Broich (ankle – 6 weeks), Shane Stefanutto (groin – 6 weeks), George Lambadaris (knee – 1 week), Jack Hingert (knee – 4 weeks)
Possible XI
Melbourne City: Redmayne, Hoffman, Kisnorbo, Wielaert, Garrucio, Paartalu, Murdocca, Mooy, Duff, Dugandzic, Williams
Brisbane Roar: Young, Brown, Smith, North, Bowles, McKay, Brattan, Henrique, Solorzano, Petratos, Lustica
Prediction
Hardly a classic encounter, but an important game for both. Expect to see City throw everything at Roar given they don’t play next week due to Western Sydney’s involvement in the World Club Championships. A loss to City will see extra pressure on JVS leading up to their next game, the Melbourne Christmas derby whilst Brisbane will be forgiven for a slip up given Theo and Broich are out.
Draw 2-2
FTSAUS Fact
- Melbourne City wins 60% of their games at AAMI Park against Brisbane, almost double their stadium average of 32.76%.
- Eric Paartalu plays his 88th A-League game against his former club Brisbane; he has always been in the starting XI when playing his previous 87 games.
- Andrew Redmayne has only kept 8 clean sheets in his A-League career of 50 games. One of the 8 was a nine minute appearance in 2010/11.
