Nine games unbeaten! Can United make it a Tremendous Ten against last season’s Champions?
Skilled Park
Nine games unbeaten! Can United make it a Tremendous Ten against last season-s Champions? Get down to Skilled Park and find out.
Gold Coast United are absolutely flying! Having only lost one game so far in the Hyundai A-League 2010/11 season and well-placed to make an assault on the top of the ladder, this team is capable of going all the way this season.
So, why not get down to Skilled Park on Friday and see for yourself what a great side Miron Bleiberg has built? It-s time to reward the players- fine form on the field with some loud and colourful support from The Beach!
Having ticked along nicely in the early part of the Hyundai A-League 2010/11 season, United have really taken things up a notch. If anything unlined their potential it was last weekend-s brilliant performance.
Melbourne Victory might be an unpredictable team but one thing is usually set in stone: they just don-t lose at Etihad Stadium. Clearly nobody told United, who silenced the big crowd and walked away with all three points.
The win was memorable for so many reasons. Firstly, it marked their ninth unbeaten match in a season that has only seen a solitary defeat – ironically a 1-0 home loss to Victory. If they don-t lose to Sydney, it will only be the fourth time in Hyundai A-League history a team has gone undefeated for ten straight matches.
Secondly, their defensive performance was, once again, outstanding. To step into such a cauldron of noise and stand so solid for 90 minutes was impressive indeed, but not in the slightest bit surprising from a side that has the best defensive record in this season-s Hyundai A-League. Their seven goals conceded in 12 games shows the kind of defensive resolve that a team needs if they are to push for silverware.
All but one of their wins this season has been by a single-goal margin. Undoubtedly though, the most pleasing thing about the win was that it was achieved with a severely depleted squad. Bruce Djite, Tahj Minniecon, James Brown and John Curtis were all out.
This Friday-s opponents, Sydney FC, arrive at Skilled Park on a high, albeit a relative one, after finally winning in front of their home faithful last week. Compared to last season, their standing in the league table is still woeful but, at long last, The Cove can take joy in studying the ladder and seeing that they no longer prop the rest of the teams up.
Okay, so last week-s win against Newcastle was ugly, controversial and hardly the kind of performance that will give fans much confidence of making the Finals, but it was enough to pull them off the foot of the table, and that will do for now. Talk of the Finals can wait, the Sky Blues are taking it one step at a time.
They may not be playing with anything like the same fluidity that they did in the Hyundai A-League 2009/10 season, but they have now taken seven points from nine and kept two clean sheets in the process. You can-t really ask for more than that.
A home game with Newcastle and a trip to the Gold Coast are entirely different beasts though. Sydney struggled to break the Jets down and only got their breakthrough thanks to a moment of officiating controversy, so, without their ever-vocal Cove behind them, they will really have to go some to find a way past the stingiest defence in the Hyundai A-League.
Still, their frontmen are certainly taking the chances they get. With Bruno Cazarine and Alex Brosque hitting five goals between them in the last three games, Vitezslav Lavicka knows that, if his midfield give them good enough service, they are more than capable of doing some damage. The Sky Blues will hope to have Mark Bridge and defender Sung-Hwan Byun back amongst the ranks, after the duo missed the Newcastle win due to injury.
Having secured more points away from home than at Skilled Park so far, it-s time for United to prove that their counter-attacking style can be just as effective in their own back yard. Sydney will present quite a challenge, so it-s up to The Beach to emanate loads of noise against the struggling Champions. Cheer your side to victory!
