No room for sentiment! Sydney’s old boys get ready to face their former club
Saturday 27th November 8:15pm
No room for sentiment! Sydney-s old boys get ready to face their former club and prove that Melbourne is where their Hearts- belong…
It might be Sydney FC-s debut appearance at AAMI Park this Saturday as they face Melbourne Heart for the first time ever but, while the sides have never gone toe-to-toe before, there-ll certainly be plenty of familiar faces ready to greet the Sky Blues.
Most notably, trying to stop his old team-mates from scoring will be one of the all-time Sydney legends. Having played five seasons for Sydney before his move to Victoria, it will be the first time that Melbourne Heart keeper Clint Bolton will have faced his old club.
His last action for the Sky Blues was of course, in the Grand Final penalty glory at the end of last season. Also sharing those happy memories are Sky Blues-turned Stripes Simon Colosimo and front-man John Aloisi. Happy memories indeed, but they-ll be no sentiment shown on Saturday as Heart look to consolidate their place in the top six.
Sydney-s last away game certainly doesn-t bring back any happy memories for the current Sky Blues players. The 3-1 defeat to Gold Coast United saw Vitezslav Lavicka-s men simply reversing directly back round the corner that they had seemingly turned.
Sure, United are one of the better sides in the Hyundai A-League 2010/11 season but the lack of spirit in the Sydney performance would have been depressing to watch for their loyal following.
The weak defeat offered no plus points but, perhaps, for the continued goalscoring form of big Brazilian frontman Bruno Cazarine, who netted his fourth in five games. However, last weekend at Parramatta Stadium, it was a different story, as they got back to winning ways with a hard-fought, if not especially pretty, win over Perth Glory.
Sydney certainly showed plenty of determination and perhaps illustrated their growing confidence and self-belief by managing to step up a gear in the last 15 minutes to grab the game by the throat and push on for the win.
Heart boss John Van-t Schip will be looking for a better showing from his boys than they put in the last time they turned out at AAMI Park. Against an Adelaide United team that had lost their last three away games, they found themselves sucked in by The Reds counter-attacking tactics and were caught with two sucker punches without managing to reply.
It seems that their momentous home triumph against local rivals Victory in Week Nine has cursed them somewhat, as the team has been winless at home since then. There might not be a better opportunity to end that run and get back to winning ways in front of their own supporters than against a team that continues to under-achieve.
It-s a historical first meeting between Heart and Sydney FC, and it-s all going down live on Saturday night. Sydney have suffered misery in Melbourne once already this season, so it-s time for Heart to prove that, anything their neighbours can do, they can do better.
And it-s up to the Red and White Army to show that, what they lack in numbers compared to Sydney-s rivals Victory, they can easily match in decibel levels. It-s time to shake AAMI Park to its foundations with song after song.
