A-League Round 18 – Preview
Sydney FC vs Western Sydney
Jubilee Stadium
Friday 28 February 2020
Kick off: 8:00pm
Match Preview
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After an initial delay to this match due to an absolute downpour, we’re finally here – derby day! This one is all about revenge. After the previous derby, where we dominated play and really deserved the three points but couldn’t get them, the players will be fired up for this one. Just like the previous derby was the first one to be played at the new Parramatta stadium, this is the first derby that will be played at Jubilee stadium.
After some patchy form through December and January, Western Sydney have turned things around a fair bit. They are now three games without a loss under new coach Jean-Paul De Marigny, who finally got what he wanted when Markus Babbel was pushed out of the club. Their most recent result was a 5-2 win over Adelaide in one of the wildest and worst-defended games of the A-League this season. That lack of defensive strength points to a real opportunity for us.
Duke has scored 4 goals in the last 3 games and new English journeyman Cox has also scored 2 goals in that time. They finally have some of the firepower they were lacking earlier in the season. What they haven’t got is a functioning backline. Jurman is an absolute shadow of the player he was and Dylan McGowan isn’t playing anywhere near as well as his brother. The big question will be if we can take our chances this time, unlike in the previous game, and whether we can keep their new strikeforce contained.
The big story on our side is that we are able to put out our full attacking line-up for the first time in a while. Baumjohann returns from his ban to strengthen the right, while Ninkovic will be looking to follow-up his goal against Central Coast last week with another one here. Up front, Barbarouses is probably due a big performance and given the quality of the youth players who have been coming off the bench lately, he really needs to start performing otherwise he might find Buhagiar has taken his spot. Hopefully some of our lacklustre attacking play throughout the previous game is just down to tired legs after flying back from Japan and a full week of training and rest will help the players here.
The only problem our line-up faces this time around is that Retre is suspended for this game due to accumulation of yellow cards. This means that Caceres is likely to play in the centre of the park. While Caceres has been good while filling in out wide, this does put some extra defensive pressure on Brattan because Caceres just isn’t quite as solid as Retre in terms of his ability to win the ball. At the back, it’s business as usual with Zullo still out. Wilkinson and McGowan had much more solid games against Central Coast and that hopefully demonstrates that the Yokohama game was a one-off.
I believe we will line-up like this:
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Previous Matches
Head-to-Head
Wins: 12 (52.2%)
Draws: 6 (26.1%)
Losses: 5 (21.7%)
Sydney FC record at Jubilee Oval
Wins: 14 (73.7%)
Draws: 2 (10.5%)
Losses: 3 (15.8%)
Last 5 Matches
26/10/19 – Western Sydney 1 – 0 Sydney FC
13/04/19 – Western Sydney 1 – 1 Sydney FC
15/12/18 – Western Sydney 1 – 3 Sydney FC
27/10/18 – Sydney FC 2 – 0 Western Sydney
6/10/18 – Western Sydney 0 – 3 Sydney FC
Records
Biggest Win – 5 goals:
9/12/17 – Western Sydney 0 – 5 Sydney FC
Biggest Loss – 2 goals (2 games):
15/12/12 – Sydney FC 0 – 2 Western Sydney
26/10/13 – Sydney FC 0 – 2 Western Sydney
Most Goals in a Game – 7 goals:
28/02/15 – Western Sydney 3 – 4 Sydney FC
Most Appearances vs Western Sydney – Rhyan Grant (17)*
Most Goals vs Western Sydney –Alex Brosque (6)
Key Statistics
- Sydney FC have not lost a home Sydney derby since 26/10/2013, which was a 2-0 loss under Frank Farina.
- Sydney FC have kept a clean sheet in three straight A-League games. The last time this happened was late in the 2016-17 season.
- Sydney FC have not lost at Jubilee Oval in the A-League since 8/12/2018.
Note: Appearances and goals only include league games, finals, FFA Cup, OFC and AFC Champions League and Club World Cup.