Pre-match: Melbourne Vs. Newcastle

By: Marcus | September 2nd, 2009

Date: Friday September 3
Kick-off: 7:30pm AEST
Venue: Etihad Stadium, Melbourne

Wardy

Analysis
Well isn’t this going to be fun! After traveling the North Queensland and then Perth back to back, we are at home against Newcastle…a team we struggle against to say the least, with 7 loses in 12 matches. The fact that we will be minus our Costa Rican wizard and this is a must win makes this game very interesting indeed.

Ward will take over from Carlos who has International duties to tend to, Kemp’s baby finally popped out after him waiting for 2 weeks which will see him replace Broxham or Sukha.
On the injury front Muscat is a week away, Berger is 3-4 weeks away .
With that all aside this is a vastly different Jets outfit to the one we last faced with not only a new coach (Branko Culina) but only 4 players in the starting 11 who featured last time against us played against GC.

Key Player
Nick Ward. He will be critical in this match, with his creative influence he should be the X factor and will have to be with out Carlos battling for a World Cup spot.

Stats

Head-to-head
Played 12: Wins: Melbourne 3, Newcastle 7, Draws: 2

Previous meeting
Newcastle Jets 4, Melbourne Victory 2, EnergyAustralia Stadium, Round 16, December 2008

Season so far:
Melbourne Victory:
Round 1: Melbourne Victory 0, Central Coast Mariners 2, Etihad Stadium
Round 2: Melbourne Victory 3, Brisbane Roar 3, Etihad Stadium
Round 3: North Queensland Fury 1, Melbourne Victory 0, Dairy Farmers Stadium
Round 4: Perth Glory 2, Melbourne Victory 1, ME Bank Stadium

Newcastle Jets:
Round 1: Newcastle Jets 3, Wellington Phoenix 2, EnergyAustralia Stadium
Round 2: Central Coast Mariners 1, Newcastle Jets 1, Bluetongue Stadium
Round 3: Perth Glory 2, Newcastle Jets 0, ME Bank Stadium
Round 4: Newcastle Jets 1, Gold Coast United 0, EnergyAustralia Stadium

Melbourne Victory: 1.Mitchell LANGERAK (gk), 5.Surat SUKHA, 6.Leigh BROXHAM, 7.Matthew KEMP, 8.Grant BREBNER, 9.Danny ALLSOPP, 10.Archie THOMPSON, 11.NEY FABIANO, 12.Rodrigo VARGAS (c), 14.Billy CELESKI, 15.Tom PONDELJAK, 17.Matthew FOSCHINI, 20.Glen MOSS (gk), 22.Nick WARD, 23.Adrian LEIJER

In: Matthew KEMP (promoted)

Out: Carlos HERNANDEZ (international duty, 1 week)

Unavailable: Kevin MUSCAT (hamstring, 1 week), Evan BERGER (groin, 3-4 weeks)

Newcastle Jets squad: 1. Ben KENNEDY (gk), 2. Angelo COSTANZO, 3. Adam D’APUZZO, 4. Nikolai TOPOR-STANLEY, 5. Ljubo MILICEVIC, 7. Jin-Hyung SONG, 8. Matt THOMPSON (c), 9. Sasho PETROVSKI, 10. Donny DE GROOT, 11. Tarek ELRICH, 15. Sean ROONEY, 16. Jason HOFFMAN, 17. Fabio VIGNAROLI, 19. Jason NAIDOVSKI, 20. Neil YOUNG (gk), 22. Kaz PATAFTA, 24. Chris TRIANTIS, 25. Labinot HALITI
*three to be omitted*

In: Labinot HALITI (new player), Donny DE GROOT (promoted), Chris TRIANTIS (promoted)
Out: Shaun ONTONG (Achilles – indefinite)
Unavailable: 6. Ben KANTAROVSKI (ankle – 1/2 weeks), 12. Jobe WHEELHOUSE (ankle – 2 weeks), Marko JESIC (knee – indefinite)

Prediction
3-2 Melbourne