Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC meet tomorrow night in the 'proper' Grand Final rematch at Etihad Stadium. These two teams did meet in Week 1 but the venue was Sydney Football Stadium and not the home of last season's finale where the Sky Blues got over the line in a penalty shootout.
Having the match back at the scene of the crime will surely give some added incentive to the Victory who were desperately unlucky to not take out the title back in March.
Their shock loss at the hands of derby rivals Melbourne Heart last week will surely have them fired up to take on their arch enemies, who are yet to salute in their title defence.
There will be only one forced change in the Victory camp with Thai defender Surat Sukha succumbing to a back problem whilst Sydney welcome back marquee man Nick Carle who has missed the past six weeks with a broken toe.
In an extremely difficult match to judge, I am forced to sit on the fence and tip a draw as I cannot see where either side will win it with the Victory struggling to score goals and Sydney continually giving up leads.
Verdict: 1-1 draw
Melbourne Victory v Sydney FCDate: Saturday, 16 October 2010 Venue: Etihad Stadium, Melbourne Local kick-off: 6.45pm AEDT Head-to-Head All matches (played 19): Melbourne Victory wins 6, Sydney FC wins 4 (9 draws) Referee: Ben Williams
Live and exclusive broadcast on FOX Sports 1 and FS1 HD and Sky Sport 1 (NZ). Hyundai A-League club broadcast partner is 774 ABC (Melbourne), SEN Digital. For ticket availability visit www.ticketmaster.com.au
Melbourne Victory squad: 1.Michael PETKOVIC (gk), 2. Kevin MUSCAT (c), 3. Mate DUGANDZIC, 4. Petar FRANJIC, 6. Leigh BROXHAM, 8.Grant BREBNER, 9.RICARDINHO, 11.Marvin ANGULO, 12.Rodrigo VARGAS, 13. Diogo FERREIRA, 14. Billy CELESKI, 15.Tom PONDELJAK, 16.Carlos HERNANDEZ, 19. Evan BERGER, 20.Sebastian MATTEI (gk), 21. Robbie KRUSE 23. Adrian LEIJER, 27. Geoff KELLAWAY *three to be omitted* In: Petar FRANJIC (promoted), Diogo FERREIRA (promoted), Marvin ANGULO (promoted) Out: Surat SUKHA (back - 1 week) Unavailable: Archie THOMPSON (knee - indefinite), Matthew KEMP (knee - indefinite)
Sydney FC squad: 1. Liam REDDY (gk), 2. Sebastian RYALL, 3. Stephan KELLER, 5. Hayden FOXE, 6. Hirofumi MORIYASU, 7. Brendan GAN, 8. Stuart MUSIALIK, 9. Bruno CAZARINE, 10. Nicky CARLE,12. Shannon COLE, 14. Alex BROSQUE, 15. Terry MCFLYNN (c), 19. Mark BRIDGE, 20. Ivan NECEVSKI (gk), 21. Scott JAMIESON, 22. Sung-Hwan BYUN *one to be omitted* In: Nicky CARLE (returns from injury) Out: Matt JURMAN (flu), Antony GOLEC (not selected) Unavailable: Kofi DANNING (national team duty), Terry ANTONIS (national team duty), Rhyan GRANT (national team duty), Dimitri PETRATOS (national team duty)