Big match-up ... will McBreen or Thompson be a goal-scoring hero? Source:News Limited
Foxsports.com.au bring you everything you need to know about Sunday night's A-League preliminary final between Central Coast Mariners v Melbourne Victory.
WHAT, WHEN, WHERE: Central Coast Mariners v Melbourne Victory, Sunday 5pm (EST), Bluetongue Stadium, Fox Sports 2 HD.
FORM GUIDE: Mariners (BWWWLL), Victory (WWWDDW)
MATCH ODDS: Mariners $1.72, draw $3.70, Victory $4.15 (TAB - as of 11/4/2013)
THE NEXT STEP: simple: the winner goes to the grand final. The loser starts planning for next year.
The Mariners have played more finals matches than anyone. But of their 16 games, they've only won four.
Is this the stage for them to finally break from the shadows?
It took a couple of days for the hype to die down after the Victory’s last-gasp and controversial win over Perth Glory. There were battered bodies and some really tired footballers on the pitch at the end of extra-time. Ange Postecoglou will have had his hands full this week – not just to prepare the team physically, but to re-focus them tactically after a surprisingly off-colour performance, where they were out-played and out-thought by Glory for most of the contest.
How Postecoglou reacts after the performance will be interesting. Will Marcos Flores start, or is that a luxury they can’t afford against a rampant Mariners midfield? Will Archie Thompson return to his wider position?
Meanwhile, Ange’s old sparring partner Graham Arnold has been trying all his tricks to rouse his side after a mid-week AFC Champions League loss in China to Guizhou Renhe. He left a lot of the first team back in Australia, and the youngsters were only over-run late in the contest.
The Mariners were the outstanding team for two-thirds of the season but a late burn-out coincided with the Wanderers’ rise. Here they are again, in a preliminary final – can they step up to the mark, or will Ange Postecoglou progress to a third consecutive A-League decider and complete a total turnaround for the Victory after last season.
LAST MEETING
Victory will have wiped it from the memory banks: a 6-2 loss at Bluetongue Stadium in round 22.
It was the first time in Melbourne’s history that they’ve conceded six goals, which included a terrific hat-trick from Michael McGlinchey, proving to everyone that the team had moved on from Tom Rogic’s departure.
The other two matches were draws and featured some of the best football we saw in the A-League this term.
STATS AMAZING
No contest has delivered more red cards over the years than this one - with 12 dished out!
The Mariners finished the season with the best record at home, claiming 11 wins, while scoring a league high 32 goals and league low nine. But, Victory are undefeated in their past three games on the road.
Both sides are renowned for their attack, but defensive consistency has been the big difference - Victory have conceded 23 more goals.
KEY MATCH-UPS
People wrote the Mariners off when Tom Rogic left, declaring they didn't have an x-factor. But they didn't count on diminutive Kiwi Michael McGlinchey enjoying a dynamic end to the season.
He likes to drift out wide, get into pockets of space and is a huge creative influence who will cause havoc if the Victory are as loose as they were last weekend.
He might live in Marco Rojas's shadows, but McGlinchey has eight assists to Rojas's nine this season.
There's no doubt Rojas is the key for Victory. He was nullified by Glory for most of the game, but the moment Victory's midfield were allowed enough time by Perth to find him, he only needed one moment to set up Archie Thompson.
15 goals alongside his eight assists explains why he finished third in the Alex Tobin vote.
There are key battles all over the park - particularly in midfield - in this clash, but which of Rojas or Thompson will provide the headline moment?
WHAT THEY SAID
Graham Arnold on the 6-2: "Three of our goals that night came in the last 10 minutes, and finals are totally different anyway," he said.
"Let's hope the referees don't become the story of the week, and that the best team wins on the day."
On taking positives out of the mid-week loss: "It was a pity we couldn't hold on when fatigue set in. Some of those boys haven't played since the youth league finished six weeks ago. But the good thing is we can concentrate on the A-League now for 10 days before we think about the Suwon game."
Marco Rojas: "I definitely think we can win the whole thing [championship] and we have been focusing on defending from the front [and through] the midfield."
Ange Postecoglou: "From our perspective it's not about conceding a goal and being forced to attack.
"It's about trying to score a second, third or fourth goal when we are leading one-nil.
"That's part of our philosophy and that is what the kind of team we want to be."
ROBBIE'S VERDICT
"Victory have to improve on last week or they have no chance. They were brave, they hung in there and, we can say it - Ange won't - they were lucky.
But with Rojas and Thompson, they're always a threat. That's what they have and on their day they're dangerous.
Milligan is a key in midfield, but defensively, they'll waver. On the other side, the Mariners are a very, very good side. They only lost their once at home this season, to the Wanderers.
Arnold has been smart, he's rested key players for the ACL match.
Like the other game, we can see Victory winning, but Mariners deserve favouritism and I think they'll make the grand final."
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