Saturdays Round 19 A -League clash between Sydney FC and Perth Glory is shaping up as a battle of two teams desperate to take maximum points and secure a place in the top 6.
Saturdays Round 19 A -League clash between Sydney FC and Perth Glory is shaping up as a battle of two teams desperate to take maximum points and secure a place in the top 6.
Placed 7th and 8th , respectively on the A-League ladder, both Sydney and Glory are separated by just a single point and a win on Saturday could lift either team as high as 5th as the race for finals football heats up.
This game sees both sides coming off the back of defeats last week, with Glory losing 2-1 to Melbourne Heart in Albury and Sydney being thumped 3-0 on home soil by Adelaide United, their 3rd loss at home on the bounce.
Despite that result, embattled Sydney FC coach Frank Farina is confident that his side can turn things around this week at home to Perth Glory.
Equally as confident is Glory-s coach Kenny Lowe, who whilst extremely critical of the conditions his team faced last Sunday against Heart, believes that his squad has the ability to get the desired result in Sydney on Saturday.
Sydney has named an 18 man squad for this game with new signing Sasa Ognenovski, Terry Antonis, Daniel Petkovski and Alec Urosevski all added to the squad. Seb Ryall misses out following suspension, whilst Nick Carle, who along with fellow team mate Matt Thompson, were suspended from training with the first team squad earlier in the week, and is out with an adductor injury. Interestingly Matt Thompson retains his place in the squad for this week-s game.
For Glory, Danny De Silva has been omitted from the final travelling squad of 16, due to illness meaning that the head coach, Kenny Lowe, will field the first unchanged squad for the season at Allianz Stadium against Sydney FC.
With marquee player William Gallas and star striker Shane Smeltz completing 90 minutes in Albury and international imports Darvydas Sernas and Nebojsa Marinkovic getting much needed game time along with Rostyn Griffiths who made his debut for his hometown club last week, Lowe will be looking for all 5 players to star in this critical clash on Saturday.
With this game being the first of 3 away games over the next 4 weeks, the Glory head to Sydney looking for a much needed repeat of their last A-League victory there, a 4-1 demolition in December 2008.
Also adding interest to this fixture is the Gallas – Del Piero match up. The last time both these players featured on the same field was the World Cup Final of 2006 in Berlin.
In the last meeting between the two sides Perth Glory defeated Sydney FC 1-0 thanks to a first half Steven McGarry penalty at nib stadium in November.
Saturday, 15 February 2014
Sydney FC v Perth Glory
Allianz Stadium, Sydney
Kick-off: 5:30pm local (2:30pm WST)
Referee: Chris Beath
Assistant Referee 1: David Walsh
Assistant Referee 2: Greg Taylor
Fourth Official: Stephen Lucas
TV Broadcast: 2.00pm (WST) Live and exclusive broadcast on FOX Sports 2HD and Sky Sport 1 (New Zealand).
Radio Broadcast: 702 ABC Sydney, Local Radio NSW, 720 ABC Perth Grandstand Digital , Online/A-League Live Mobile phone app.
Join the conversation on Twitter using the hash-tag #SYDvPER
To purchase tickets visit www.aleague.com.au/tickets
Sydney FC squad: 1.Ivan NECEVSKI (gk), 4.Ranko DESPOTOVIC, 5.Matt JURMAN, 6.Nikola PETKOVIC, 9.Corey GAMEIRO, 10.Alessandro DEL PIERO (c), 13.Sasa OGNENOVSKI, 14.Mitch MALLIA, 17.Terry ANTONIS, 20.Vedran JANJETOVIC (gk), 21.Milos DIMITRIJEVIC, 22.Ali ABBAS, 24.Hagi GLIGOR, 25.Daniel PETKOVSKI, 28.Matt THOMPSON, 29.Alec UROSEVSKI, 34.Aaron CALVER, 35.Dylan CATON
**Two to be omitted**
Ins: 13.Sasa OGNENOVSKI (new signing), 17.Terry ANTONIS (return from injury), 25.Daniel PETKOVSKI (promoted), Alec UROSEVSKI (promoted).
Outs: 2.Seb RYALL (suspended – 1 game), 19.Nick CARLE (2 weeks – adductor),
Unavailable: Rhyan GRANT (knee – season), Pedj BOJIC (back – 2 weeks) Terry MCFLYNN (quad – 1 weeks), Richard GARCIA (ankle – 1 week)
Perth Glory Squad: 1.Daniel VUKOVIC (GK), 2.Jack CLISBY, 5.Rostyn GRIFFITHS, 7.Jacob BURNS, 8.Nebojsa MARINKOVIC, 9.Shane SMELTZ, 10.Jamie MACLAREN, 14.Steven McGARRY, 16.Sidnei SCIOLA MORAES, 17.Chris HAROLD, 18.Jack DUNCAN, 19.Josh RISDON, 23.Michael THWAITE, 25.Riley WOODCOCK, 28.Darvydas SERNAS, 36.William GALLAS
Ins: None
Outs: None
Unavailable: Travis DODD (knee – indefinite), Scott JAMIESON (Achilles – indefinite)
