The City boys are set to face Brisbane Roar in what could prove to be the most pivotal game of the season, with a title, incredible streaks and club records all on the line in what could prove to be a Mother’s Day classic.
Last time out, the boys recovered after conceding an early goal to emerge 3-1 victors in their behind-closed-doors clash against Perth Glory, with Jamie Maclaren scoring twice against the team that he made sure to remind didn’t want him.
Brisbane Roar will prove to be testing opposition on Sunday, with the side currently on the league’s longest undefeated streak, which they extended with a last-gasp win over Western United last Wednesday.
With Andrew Nabbout returning to the side and Daniel Georgievski also promoted to the matchday squad, here’s what we’re looking forward to ahead of tomorrow’s massive clash:
All roads lead to this
It’s no overstatement to say that this is quite literally the biggest, most decisive game of our season.
The league’s two most in-form teams – City six games undefeated against Brisbane, seven games – are set to do battle at AAMI Park, with the visitors in the (relatively) likeliest position of the distant chasing pack to be able to contest for the Premier’s Plate.
A City win would see our boys move NINE points clear on top of the table, at which point the league would appear to have been won on all but mathematical terms.
Our performances this season have deservedly lead to this opportunity, it’s now up to the boys to take it with both hands.
An INCREDIBLE home record against the Roar
It feels as though this frankly unbelievable bit of trivia hasn’t been brought up enough this week, so hold on to your hats: Brisbane haven’t won an A-League fixture away to Melbourne City since .................................. 2010.
That’s right, since our very first clash against the Roar on the 14th of November (Round 14) of our very first season as Melbourne Heart, the club has gone on to win ELEVEN (!!) of the next 14 games, by an aggregate scoreline of 27:9.
If that statistic wasn’t promising enough, throw in the fact that City are currently enjoying a record winning streak (6) in home games, having won seven of our eight as the hosts this season.
Sounds like a pretty good reason to celebrate Mother’s Day at AAMI Park, if you ask us.
G.O.A.T?
He’s cracked the tonne, done it at a record pace and scored the most A-League goals in club history, but a brace against his former side would put Jamie Maclaren’s name up there as one of the greatest players of all time to pull on a Melbourne City shirt.
Whilst we’ll leave the awarding of that title outright to be debated, perhaps in its own podcast episode and certainly in discussions amongst the City faithful, there can be no debate in regards to our goalscoring ranks if JMac were to bag two tomorrow afternoon.
With that hypothetical brace, Maclaren would move to 58 goals in 59 appearances in all competitions for Melbourne City, surpassing Bruno Fornaroli (57 in 83) as the club’s all-time leading goalscorer.
Bringing up an achievement like this in a preview when he’s still got two goals to score would normally be awkward territory for discussion, given the average striker would likely score one (or none) and force us to resurrect the topic every week until that second goal comes, but when we’re dealing with a striker as prolific as Maclaren, we thought we’d better cover all bases now rather than after the fact.
Here’s hoping those in attendance tomorrow will be witnessing Melbourne City history.
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