With the W-League side out of action this weekend with the Bye, all eyes turn to our blockbuster clash against current league-leaders Sydney FC.
Though we’ve struggled in recent times against the Sky Blues, it’s a game that we’ll need to take something out of in order to keep the league’s title challenge interesting.
Here are three talking points ahead of our clash against Sydney FC:
Our bogey side… until recently
City’s 2-0 win over Sydney last season snapped an EIGHT-game losing streak in the head-to-head fixture (Cup and league-inclusive) – a run in which we scored just three goals and conceded 21.
In fact, our winning percentage against the Sky Blues is just 27.6%, which is our second-worst against all current A-League teams, behind only Perth Glory at 22.6%.
For many City fans, just the thought of Sydney FC brings about bad memories and a whole lot of spite, but there’s a LOT riding on this weekend’s game…
Touching distance
It’s hardly a secret but this Sunday’s blockbuster game between the top two sides might just decide this season’s title race.
Already holding a six-point lead over second-placed City, Sydney FC could take the margin out to nine points with a win; a gap so large that the league’s typically most-consistent team is hardly likely to bottle it.
We mentioned after our Derby loss that we can ill-afford to be distracted by challenging for the league when we’re so inconsistent ourselves, but to put it bluntly, if the league’s going to maintain some sort of interest for the next four months then we’ll have to pull off something special to keep ourselves within touching distance.
Bratts is back, but so is Brillante
The biggest talking point of our off-season player recruitment was the decision to forgo the renewal of Luke Brattan’s contract, instead bringing in one of the league’s premier midfielders in Josh Brillante.
Such similar players on the face of things, the two crossed over between City and Sydney, but it seems we’ve ended up with the better end of the deal so far.
Brillante tends to take more shots (including his one goal) and creates more chances, tripling Brattan’s shot and goal assists (12 and 3 respectively).
Whilst Brillante makes his return to Sydney this weekend, City fans will have to wait until April 26, 2020, for Brattan to play in front of his old fans at AAMI Park again.
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