It’s somewhat of a shame that the first ever W-League Melbourne Derby was scheduled for this weekend, as international call-ups are set to keep eight players in total out of the clash between Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory.
With – close to – their full squads however, it could be said that both sides surpassed expectations in the first round of W-League action; City opened the floodgates to win 6-0 over Sydney FC while Victory were very competitive in a 2-1 loss to Perth Glory.
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The Victory would have been incredibly disappointed not to have escaped with at least a point, but the signs were good, given they had an astounding six players make their W-League debut’s in the one contest.
Laura Spiranovic grabbed a goal eight minutes into her top-flight return, while their defence also earned rave reviews, in particular Alex Natoli and Thea Slatyer were standouts as a central-pairing.
The group will be all the more confident for having gone through their first game, but they face a whole new challenge in the form of Melbourne City, who were impeccable last Sunday.
“You’ve got to be excited about the first one, and it’s next week. If it was Adelaide, Brisbane or Canberra, whoever it was, next week is always the biggest game. It just adds that extra spice that it is Melbourne City,” Victory coach Dave Edmondson said on the impending clash.
“There’s going to be 11 players on each side and we need to be the 11 that win. I don’t care who’s on [the team sheet] and if we win next week, the return fixture then becomes enormous. Similarly, if they get the result next week then suddenly it becomes even bigger.
“That’s the thing with derby’s, it’s the bragging rights. When you bump into people every day for the next few months, it’ll be ‘what was the score in that game’. So for the girl’s sake, a lot of them wouldn’t have been involved in derby’s of this intensity before, so literally that’s our focus now.”
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City will be hoping to grab those bragging rights by pulling together another clinical performance against their rivals on the weekend.
In particular Marianna Tabain and Larissa Crummer were superb in that contest; the former was the creative force behind everything City did, while Crummer was twice on the end of Tabain’s good work.
The defensive pairing of Rebekah Stott and Laura Alleway worked a treat in their first performance alongside each other, with ‘keeper Trudy Burke solid behind them, stopping a penalty and contributing to a clean sheet.
How they fare with a largely different looking side this week will be the major talking point.
Selection News:
“We won’t take any chances [with Kuralay], we’ve got a good medical team and we’ll make sure it’s done properly. We’ll move on either way and hopefully it’s nothing too serious and she’s back next week, but we’ll have to wait and see.”
Those words from Edmondson post-Perth Glory unfortunately didn’t come to pass as midfielder Selin Kuralay was confirmed to have done an ACL injury, which will keep her out for some time.
Who the club will draft in to fill the void is still up for debate; will they pick one of the Senior NTC girls in a train-on role or go for a more senior figure?
She misses this week for the Victory, as does Hayley Raso, who travels to China with the Matildas squad, and Christine Nairn, who earned her first call-up to the United States national team since 2012.
Slatyer suffered from cramp on her return to football, but should be fine to play, while this game will come too soon for utility defender Gulcan Koca who’s still struggling with a foot injury.
We could see one of the youngest ever Victory teams take to the field, with the Taranto twins – Adriana and Melissa – both in contention for a starting berth, as is Jess Pitts, who could come in for her starting debut amongst a defensive re-shuffle.
It’ll be interesting to see if American Georgia Cloepfil gets game time having not made the bench last week against Perth Glory despite no apparent injury concerns.
City will also be missing a wealth of players, with four of City’s starting 11 in last week’s game all with the Matildas in China.
Steph Catley, Lisa De Vanna, Crummer and Alleway all come out of Joe Montemurro’s side, with Jess Fishlock also set to miss as she arrives in Australia on match-day.
Fellow international Kim Little is with the Scottish squad and will also miss this week’s clash.
Elsewhere, injuries to Brianna Davey and Monique Iannella should keep the pair out of action for the derby as well.
Between all of this, it’ll be hard bringing together a starting XI for City, let alone a full squad, but expect a number of short-term contracts to be offered to help alleviate the pressure.
Tyla-Jay Vlajnic, Tessa Sernio, Racheal Quigley and Olivia Edwards have all been training with the club, so expect a few of those names to help fill the remaining spots.
The most interesting potential call-up however is former Melbourne Victory defender Hannah Brewer, who trained with the club mid-week and is expected to line up in defence.
Key Match-ups:
Rebekah Stott vs. Laura Spiranovic
Former teammates collide and you anticipate it to be a physical sparring match for the full 90 minutes. Both players put in good performances last week, but you fancy it to be an arm wrestle this week, with only one winner come the end. It’ll be a tight tussle aerially and physically, but if the service into Spiranovic is good, she could break the game open with her pace.
Amy Jackson vs. Jamie Pollock
A rematch of the Women’s Premier League Grand Final beckons, with Pollock recieving the medal for best-on-ground in a winning performance for South Melbourne. Jackson – of the Boroondara Eagles – got one back by clean sweeping nearly every other award on offer, but was duly ousted in the decider by her American opponent. It could just be the midfield tussle that once again decides this one; South shocked Boroondara with a win on that day, can Victory do the same to City?
Predicted Line-ups:
Melbourne City Bench: Kelsey Quinn (GK), Olivia Edwards, Olivia Ellis, Alex Chidiac
Melbourne Victory Bench: Cassie Dimovski (GK), Melindaj Barbieri, Whitney Knight, Georgia Cloepfil