Sydney FC vs Melbourne Heart
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Today’s secondary featured game is the Australian A-League game between Sydney FC and Melbourne Heart. We should be in for a good game between two in-form sides here!
Sydney FC boss Lavicka should be pleased with where his side is at right now. Although unquestionably one of the bigger A-League outfits, Sydney FC haven’t played like a big side for some time due to their lack of a goal threat. However, the signing of Finnish striker Makela part-way through last season gave them a new option up front that really suited them. Although Makela hasn’t featured much this season, Brazilian attacker Bruno Cazarine has flourished with a strong midfield behind him. The set pieces of Slovak midfielder Karol Kisel, the experience of Brett Emerton, and the movement of Nick Carle has done Sydney FC the power of good with all of them weighing in on the goals front. There’s bags of experience in this Sydney FC team and that helps them a lot here. They still don’t have the necessary strikers to challenge for the A-League title this season, in my view, but they’re playing well and scoring goals so let’s give them the respect that they deserve here. Sydney have scored four goals over their last two games and are unbeaten in four games so they should have the confidence to score a couple here. They’ve kept just one clean sheet at home this season, however, and thus I think we’ll see them contribute to an over 2.5 goals game today.
Visitors Melbourne Heart never really struck me as an “overs” team; they used to be more of a defensive side that struggled to score goals. However, they’ve leapt out of the traps lately with four consecutive wins, three of which were away from home! There’s a tremendous amount of belief in the squad at the moment, especially after their dramatic 3-2 win against illustrious local rivals Melbourne Victory last time out. There’s still steps that this side can take to improve e.g. by sorting out their inconsistent defence! However, van ‘t Schip has a good set of players at his disposal and players playing with belief is something that you can’t really argue with. Brazilian duo Maicon and Alex Terra are causing problems for opponents and midfielder Dugandzic is in the form of his life with five goals in ten A-League games this season. Although a doubt for this game, Argentinian attacker Germano has also played well this season so Melbourne Heart are not short of attacking options. Melbourne Heart’s last four away games have all gone over 2.5 goals due to the inexperience and lack of cohesion in their backline but the form of their attackers is good and thus they look good candidates for going over 2.5 goals here.
History doesn’t back up my thoughts here but then again, things change rapidly in the A-League. You can’t get relegated; sides just appear and disappear depending on money. There are some very good players in this league and they tend to make a huge impact on their respective teams in terms of allowing them to score more goals and that’s something that I think we’ll see a knock-on effect of here. For me, over 2.5 goals is well worth a punt at 9/10.
Verdict: Over 2.5 goals at 9/10.
Thursday’s Picks
Australian A-League:
Sydney FC vs Melbourne Heart (5) 2-2
Chilean Primera Division:
Universidad de Chile vs Cobreloa (8) 2-0
Enjoy your free betting tips!