Sydney FC v Mariners Rd1

Liven up yourselves people…

Official squads aren’t out yet and may not be out till tomorrow – Friday games suck like that. So I’ve assumed the squads myself and run with it from there.

SYDNEY FC SQUAD: (Two to be dropped)
#1) Clint Bolton (GK)
#2) Iain Fyfe
#3) Nikolas Tsattalios
#4) Mark Rudan
#6) Tony Popovic (c)
#7) Robbie Middleby
#9) David Zdrilic
#10) Steve Corica
#11) Brendon Santalab
#14) Alex Brosque
#15) Terry McFlynn
#16) Mark Milligan
#19) Michael Enfield
#21) Adam Biddle
#22) Juninho
#23) Ufuk Talay
#30) Matthew Nash (GK)

SYDNEY FC PREDICTED LINEUP:

———————-Bolton

McFlynn———–Rudan—-Popovic———-Fyfe

———-Milligan——————Talay

Biddle————–Juninho—————Corica
————————Brosque

BENCH:
Nash
Tsattalios
Enfield/Santalab
Zdrilic/Santalab

CENTRAL COAST MARINERS SQUAD: (Two to be dropped)
#1) Matthew Trott (GK)
#2) Matt Simon
#6) Andre Gumprecht
#7) John Hutchinson
#8) Dean Heffernan
#9) Nik Mrdja
#10) Tom Pondeljak
#11) Damien Brown
#13) Tony Vidmar
#15) Andrew Clark
#16) Nigel Boogard
#17) Matthew Osman
#18) Alex Wilkinson (c)
#19) Adam Kwasnik
#20) Danny Vukovic (GK)
#22) Sasho Petrovski
#23) Mile Jedinak

CENTRAL COAST MARINERS PREDICTED LINEUP:

————————Trott

Osman————Vidmar—-Wilkinson——-Heffernan

Kwasnik———Jedinak—–Gumprecht——Pondeljak

———–Petrovski—————Mrdja

BENCH:
Vukovic
Boogard
Brown
Simon

Bookie’s Thoughts
Centrebet will offer:
$2.05 Sydney win
$3.30 draw
$3.40 Mariners win

Recent Encounters:
PRE-SEASON CUP 2007:
SFC 0 – 3 CCM (Osman, Kwasnik, Gumprecht)

HAL 06/07:
CCM 0 – 0 SFC
CCM 3 – 1 SFC (O’Grady, Mori x2 / Carbone fk)
SFC 1 – 0 CCM (Fyfe)

Key Battles:
Gumprecht/Jedinak v.s. Talay/Miligan: This is the gamebreaker. In Canberra Gumprecht and Jedinak had a field day against the makeshift SFC midfield of Talay/Severino. Jedinak held fort at the base and Gumprecht swathed through the middle as he pleased. If this happens again we can expect a similar scoreline.
Thankfully things have changed, at least to a degree. Talay has had more matchtime and done more with it, Millsy at CDM is far better to get stuck in and fight for the ball in the middle, and Popovic playing a full game in the backline will be infinitely better than McFlynn’s first-half cameo at CB in Canberra that saw us slaughtered. If Talay and Millsy get a foothold I think we’re in with a chance – but only if then.

McFlynn/Fyfe v.s. Pondeljak/Kwasnik: Not too much to say as it’s been documented in depth on SFCU but our fullbacks are a clear weakness. T-Mac’s tackling skill is about all he’s got going for him at RB and Fyfe is horribly out of position at left-back of all places. With the two deeper lying CMs, much of CCM’s game will rely on getting the ball wide to their very attack-minded wide men. We have the potential to be seriously carved open in this area – and McKinna will be counting on doing so to win.

Brosque/Corica/Juninho v.s. Osman/Vidmar: If the Mariners have a weak point this is it. For mine it will be mistake of McKinna to go for Vidmar instead of Boogard as is expected, and with Corica inevitably drifting in from the left we’ll be counting on our three best players on the ball to combine and find us our goals.

Jaza’s Tip:
SFC 1 – 3 CCM. They’re in good form having had a long pre-season (my tips for the title), and combined with our poor form, injury list and shocking (IMO) tactical decisions recently we will lose this game easily.