Melbourne Victory defender James Donachie is excited by the prospect of testing himself against Australia’s all-time leading scorer Tim Cahill in Saturday night’s Melbourne Derby.
The Caltex Socceroo forward is set to make his Hyundai A-League debut in Saturday night’s derby after missing Round 1 due to international commitments.
And Donachie is likely to be given the job – alongside Alan Baro – of stopping Cahill.
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Donachie insists Victory cannot be too focused on Cahill and risk giving too much space to Melbourne City’s other strikers, including reigning golden boot winner Bruno Fornaroli.
But the ex-Brisbane Roar centre-back is still excited to test himself against Cahill.
“Of course. Obviously you grow up watching a player like Timmy and I’ve been watching to obviously try and stop him,” Donachie said on Thursday.
“So I’ve been looking pretty closely at stuff that he does, off the ball and stuff like that, to try and keep him as quiet as possible.”
Victory drew 1-1 away to Donachie’s old club Brisbane last week, with a 95th-minute goal from Luke DeVere ensuring Roar claimed a point.
It was a disappointing way to miss out on a win for Victory, with DeVere scoring as he fell to the ground at Suncorp Stadium after the visitors failed to clear a free-kick.
“I’m not sure how you would sum up that situation because he [DeVere] was off balance and stuff like that, and we did what we had to do,” Donachie said.
“We were organised in that set-piece… I mean we have to kind of finish that off and we’ll do things differently with set-pieces to make that sure that there’s zero chance of that happening again.”
Meanwhile, Melbourne City’s Adrian Caceres has been impressed by how seamlessly Cahill has started his City career since arriving in August.
“Like a gentleman, he’s [Cahill] slotted right into the playing group,” he said.
“He’s very humble despite all his success and, you know, I think he brings a calmness to the team, an assurance, and his ability on the field speaks for itself.”
