The battle for a final's spot heats up this weekend, as Dandenong Thunder and Northcote City go head-to-head on Saturday night at George Andrews Reserve.
Dandenong is currently sitting in fifth place with 27 points on the Alanic Victorian Premier League table, just ahead of Northcote City in sixth place on 24 points.
Northcote City have been consistent performers all season, while Dandenong came back from a horror start to their season, and have now won six matches in a row.
Dandenong played a friendly against Melbourne Victory on Tuesday night, and coach Stuart Munro said the team pulled up a bit sore.
Munro said last week’s win against Bentleigh and this match against Northcote City are “six pointers”.
Luke Sherbon will probably be back into the team this week, with Munro having the luxury of being able to choose from a full-strength squad.
Northcote City snaffled a last-minute draw against the Green Gully Cavaliers last weekend.
“It was really good to get a result against Green Gully, I rate them really highly, them and Dandenong Thunder are the two in-form teams of the league,” coach Peter Tsolakis said.
Looking to this weekend’s match, Tsolakis said it is a crucial game and could determine who will make the finals in 2010.
“If we want to have any hope we have to at least get some sort of a result against Dandenong Thunder.”
Bradley Norton didn’t play last weekend because of a groin injury, and Tsolakis doesn’t want to risk any long term injury with him so he may miss another game.
The Friday night game sees two top-of-the-ladder teams battling out at Kevin Bartlett Reserve – Richmond and the Oakleigh Cannons.
Richmond had a much-needed win on Monday night in the Round 18 VPL LIVE broadcast game against Sunshine George Cross at Knights Stadium.
“We’ve had a month of disappointing results, I thought we played far better last week against Hume but we’ve got nothing to show for it,” coach Michael Chatzitrifonos said after the match.
“You know it wasn’t pretty, it was a hard-fought win, but at this stage of the year, just leading into the last part of the season, we’re just grateful that we got the three points, and we’re just hoping that we can carry it on and hopefully have a good performance against Oakleigh on Friday,” he said.
Richmond only have a four day break before they have to back up their Monday night game, it will be a huge challenge as they face second-placed Oakleigh Cannons at Kevin Bartlett Reserve.
The Oakleigh Cannons lost to Hume City last weekend, 3-1, after Hume came out firing, scoring their three goals in the first half.
Despite Oakleigh having only won one of their past five matches, they’re still sitting third on the ladder, just two points behind the league-leaders.
Sunshine George Cross face a tough challenge again this weekend, coming up against in-form Green Gully Cavaliers at Knights Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
Sunshine lost 1-0 to Richmond in the round 18 VPL LIVE broadcast game, with coach Theo Constantinou saying the side was “unlucky”.
“It was a pretty well-balanced game; I thought we could’ve come away with at least a point, if not three,” he said.
Sunshine has not won a game since round nine, but Constantinou said the confidence and morale around the club was still high.
Evan Christodoulou returned from several weeks on the side lines to play against Richmond, but unfortunately he left the field before half time after suffering an ankle injury.
“He’s at about 70%, we’ll have to wait and see if he can play this weekend,” Constantinou said.
The Green Gully Cavaliers are in a purple patch at the moment, they have only lost one match since round 10.
Last week they had a number of players missing from their senior team, but were still able to get a point in their match against Northcote City.
Gully’s coach, Paul Harris, said Josh Groenewald was trialling with Gold Coast United last weekend and should be back this week; Jason Hayne will miss another match as he’s still away in New Zealand for personal reasons; Jonathan Munoz has a hamstring injury, but may be available to play; and Jeffrey Fleming served the last of his two-match suspension and is available for selection.
Harris said he thought the result of the match against Northcote was a “fair result”.
“But it’s always disappointing to lose to a sloppy goal.”
Harris said this weekend’s match against Sunshine will be tough, as Sunshine are “defensively, quite strong”.
The last time these two teams met, Sunshine George Cross defeated Green Gully 1-0 in Bendigo.
On Sunday afternoon, the Melbourne Knights welcome Altona Magic to Knights Stadium for their round 19 match.
The Knights have been struggling with form in recent weeks, and coach Ivan Duzel is feeling the pressure.
“It’s very tough, very stressful”, he said.
The Knights lost 3-0 to South Melbourne last weekend, and Duzel puts the blank scoresheet down to the amazing goal keeping efforts of South’s Peter Zois.
“They (Knights) played a good game, I believe the players were unlucky with this situation, it was absolutely brilliant goal keeping.”
The Melbourne Knights defeated Altona Magic 2-0 the last time they played back in round eight, but this time around Altona Magic has a new coach, and new players.
“Everything’s in our hands, if my boys play with the character like they did against South Melbourne the goals are gunna come, and it will be a very positive outcome for us,” Duzel said.
Altona Magic ended Heidelberg United’s amazing run last weekend, winning 2-1 at Paisley Park Soccer Complex.
Altona Magic are currently sitting 10th on the Alanic Victorian Premier League table, whilst the Melbourne Knights are in 11th place.
On Sunday afternoon at John Cain Memorial in the round 19 VPL LIVE broadcast, Hume City will be out to avenge their round eight, 6-0 loss to South Melbourne.
Hume City coach, Andy Vlahos, said he will be using that match as motivation for is players in the lead up to their big game.
Hume City have had an interesting month results-wise, they lost 2-1 to both the Melbourne Knights and Sunshine George Cross – teams that occupy the bottom of the ladder, they then went on to defeat the two other top teams in Richmond, and the Oakleigh Cannons last weekend.
South Melbourne’s Ramazan Tavsancioglu was delighted with the club’s 3-0 win against the Melbourne Knights last weekend.
“We had a great win, everyone pulled up really,” he said.
Tavsancioglu said Fernando De Moraes and Sam Torrens are both available for selection this weekend.
Tavsancioglu has predicted this weekend’s match to be very competitive, particularly because of round eight’s result.
Andy Vlahos tweaked his hamstring and Steven Pace injured his quad in the win against Oakleigh. Vlahos said they will both train on Thursday before a decision is made on their inclusion in the starting line up.
The final match in round 19 is Heidelberg United versus the Bentleigh Greens at Olympic Village on Sunday.
Heidelberg’s amazing run came to an end on the weekend, when they were brought back down to earth by Altona Magic, losing 2-1.
Coach George Katsakis said he had a number of senior players missing from the team.
“We’ve been stiff, we had a lot of boys out this week,” he said.
Katsakis said he is being forced to play a reserves team this weekend, with the number of injuries and suspensions mounting.
“We only have four senior boys who are going to play, but we’ll be able to see how far our kids have gone, and the boys that are starting have had senior experience.”
Notably, new recruits Nicholas Marinos and George Slefendorfas will be absent this weekend with suspension.
Andy O’Dell recorded a loss in his first match as coach of the Bentleigh Greens, with the Greens’ outplayed by Dandenong Thunder last Friday night.
The Bentleigh Greens are in ninth position on the Alanic Victorian Premier League table, while Heidelberg United is vying for a finals position, equal with Northcote City on 24 points.
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Last updated: Thursday July 22, 2010 5:30PM
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