Isuzu UTE A-League leaders Melbourne Victory can replicate two of their finest-ever months when they meet Adelaide United on Saturday.
At AAMI Park, the two teams will meet in the 57th edition of the “original rivalry”, an enmity that dates back to season one of the men’s competition.
It will also be the third time the clubs have met in the past four weeks.
On December 11 Victory claimed a 2-1 win at Coopers Stadium and on Wednesday night they won by the same scoreline in the FFA Cup.
In their storied history, only twice have Victory played Adelaide as often in such a short time: and both times led to titles.
In 2007, they played off three times in a finals series that culminated in Victory’s infamous 6-0 grand final destruction of the Reds.
And in 2009, they beat United three times in 21 days, including another 1-0 grand final success.
Long-time Adelaide stalwart Ross Aloisi – standing in as coach in Carl Veart’s COVID-enforced absence – said clashes were “always fiery”.
“It means a lot to us and our supporters to beat Melbourne Victory. Probably not as much to them,” he said.
Perhaps surprisingly, Aloisi said he was happy with the Reds’ performance in the recent losses.
“The two games we’ve played against Melbourne Victory, we’ve controlled the games basically. They’ve caught us on the counter attack,” he said.
“(In the FFA Cup) we should have gone into half time 3-0 up.
“(To lose) left a bitter taste in our mouth … but we were very, very happy with our performance.
“We’re extremely confident going into this game. We know we can get the result providing we can stop them hurting us on counter-attacks and set pieces.”
Victory captain Josh Brillante said Wednesday’s win came from an increased intensity.
“It was a graft. We showed good mentality,” he told AAP.
“We were a little bit more aggressive, putting pressure on the ball and not letting them dictate the game.”
Victory coach Tony Popovic said completing the trifecta of wins would require a different attitude to the cup win.
“We’re delighted to go through (in the FFA Cup) winning away from home, coming from behind, but we know that this is this will be completely different,” he said.
“Yes, same set of players but the league’s always a different type of game.”
As with all current fixtures, COVID-19 will loom large over the contest.
The match is one of just two scheduled this weekend, with outbreaks affecting much of the league.
Victory are missing a small number of players, while Veart won’t travel and Aloisi said “two or three” players were still isolating with the virus.
