The Western Sydney Wanderers travel south to face defending Premier’s Plate winners Melbourne Victory in a crucial Good Friday game for both sides’ finals aspirations.
With no AFL played on the holiday, this clash will take the limelight and showcase the world game under Friday night lights at AAMI Park. The Good Friday game is a fantastic occasion for both sets of supporters to get behind their teams and provide a cauldron-like atmosphere.
All eyes will be on crowd behaviour after what happened when these sides met at Etihad Stadium last month, where Wanderers fans released a number of flares and unfurled aggressively-worded banners. These two have the most fanatical sets of active supporter groups in the league – the North Terrace (Victory) and the Red and Black Bloc (WSW). The threat of three points being stripped from either club should fans misbehave will surely see common sense prevail with flares being kept at home. Derailing their side’s finals chances will be the last thing any genuine fan would want to see. Instead, raucous support in the form of songs, chants and roars of approval at their team’s forward thrusts should be on the menu. This kind of positive support being on display on the big stage will silence even the most serious critics of our game.
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On the pitch, this match should be an absolute belter. Both teams desperately need a win, as an exciting finals series looms ever closer with just three rounds remaining. Top of the table Wanderers sit nine points clear of a stuttering Victory in sixth. Only two points separate Tony Popovic’s side from fourth-placed Adelaide United, and an away win here could strike a significant blow against the rest of the top four. After a goalless stalemate at home against Adelaide last week, the Wanderers will be looking to cement their spot at the top of the table and get back into goal-scoring form. Victory, on the other hand, only have one win in their last six matches and are perilously clinging to sixth place with Sydney FC hot on their heels for the last finals spot.
A heavy schedule with their Asian Champions League fixtures, combined with the announcements of the impending exodus of both Kosta Barbarouses and Gui Finkler at the end of this season to Wellington Phoenix, have been key factors in Victory’s alarming recent downturn in form. The boos that reverberated around AAMI Park last weekend at the full-time whistle after they failed to beat a 10-man Newcastle illustrated the frustration many of their fans are currently feeling.
If Western Sydney are to secure what would be their second Premier’s Plate in four campaigns, they need to find some polish and end product in the final-third. Over the last two rounds, the Wanderers have only converted one of a total 31 attempts on goal. They were completely dominant last time they travelled to play Victory, holding more than 62% of possession and having three times as many shots on goal as their opponents (15-5). But Tony Popovic’s side needed a late goal from Brendon Santalab just to secure a point in a 1-1 draw. With marquee man Federico Piovaccari ultimately proving a failure as their man striking option, they have had to rely on a combination of Mark Bridge as a stop-gap striker, Santalab as a super-sub and attacking-midfielder Mitch Nichols. While goals for these three have dried up in the last five rounds, Romeo Castelen has stepped up to the plate and chipped in to score. But while Castelen thrives on running at pace and taking on defenders, he cannot be classified as a genuine marksman. This is the Wanderers’ most glaring weakness – the lack of a key man that can take the pressure off with crucial goals.
Bridge has been exceptional this season in adapting to a role up front for Popovic, but he would ideally be playing on the left-wing. If he fails to find his goal scoring boots in time for finals, the lack of striking options could prove disastrous for the Wanderers. They just do not have a player like Bruno Fornaroli at Melbourne City, or a Jamie Maclaren for Brisbane Roar, or a Besart Berisha for Victory. Fornaroli has scored 20 goals, Maclaren 17 and Berisha 16. Western Sydney are on top of a very congested ladder despite being only the fourth-highest scoring team, with 38 goals in 24 matches.
The flipside of this coin is that the defence has been hugely impressive this season. The Wanderers have the second best defensive record in the competition in terms of goals conceded, and have been particularly stingy in the last few rounds. Scott Neville has been important as an overlapping right-back, starting all 23 games so far this season. Spanish duo Andreu and Dimas have screened the back-four to great effect this season, while skipper Nikolai Topor-Stanley has been a rock in the centre of defence. The Wanderers are gunning for their third clean sheet in a row, and if they can keep Victory at bay it would be the first time they’ve achieved that defensive record in their history.
While it is too early to write off the Victory’s chances in the finals this season, a win here for Western Sydney could signify a symbolic changing of the guard. The Victorians have self-imploded lately, and the decision to leave Finkler out of their ACL squad has backfired spectacularly now that he has decided to leave at season’s end. The Brazilian and Barbarouses deciding to jump ship points to a certain level of unrest in the Victory camp. Kevin Muscat will be desperate to steady the ship with a win, and will look to restore the confident, swift, free-flowing attacking football that has seen his side become the A-League’s most successful over the years.
A cacophony of noise awaits AAMI Park in this tantalising fixture. It remains to be seen whether it will be the scene of a Victory rejuvenation in time for finals, or the scene of the Wanderers striking a telling blow in the race for the Premier’s Plate. The implications are massive. The stage is set for football to take centre stage in a Good Friday blockbuster.
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