Melbourne City Youth will look to add to City’s early season A-League and W-League derby dominance when they run out against the Melbourne Victory in the Youth Melbourne Derby this Sunday.
City come into the game undefeated so far during the Y-League campaign, having defeated the Brisbane Roar in week one and sharing the spoils with Adelaide United last week.
The contest against the Reds last week was a proverbial game of two halves, with City dominating the opening half, Daniel Arzani starring out wide and Braedyn Crowley going close to adding to his 18th minute opener several times, and the Reds getting the upper hand in the second half Apostolos Stamatelopoulos getting into the game for the hosts as the heat and travel began to take its toll on the City players.
Speaking on the game, City Youth Head Coach Joe Palatsides said:
“The first half against Adelaide was very, very good,”
“We controlled the game, I think the possession count was very high for us and that’s exactly what we wanted to do.”
“And we carved out a lot of good chances, so even though we took the lead we probably missed two or three really good chances that should have wrapped up the game for us by half time.”
Palatsides also singled out Arzani for praise:
“Daniel Arzani actually was probably our main focus point of attack in that first half, he got past his opponent quite well the majority of the time and set up many chances,”
Palatsides does recognise however, that the contest did not go entirely City’s way:
“To Adelaide’s credit, in the second half they came out and were a bit more aggressive in the way the played the game, not physically, but being proactive and pressing higher and making it a bit harder for us.”
“Even though we had some more chances to win the game they got back into it and had some chances of their own so at the end it was probably a fair result.”
This week’s opponents the Melbourne Victory played their first game of the Y-League campaign last week, having a bye in week one, going down four goals to one against the Brisbane Roar in Brisbane.
The game featured a brace by for former Melbourne City and now Brisbane Roar senior listed player Corey Gameiro and a missed penalty by the Victory’s Josh Hope, who has made a number of appearances for the Victory’s first team this year.
Palatsides admits that there is a level of familiarity in both camps of the derby, and a sense of anticipation in both leading up to the game:
“Victory’s probably very aware of what we’re doing and they’re very aware of what we’re doing,”
“We always have good games [Against each other]”
“We’ve probably had the upper hand over the recent years and previously to that Victory probably had the upper hand over us, so we’ve balanced it out and now we’re going forward,”
“It’s always a good game and the boys always look forward to it.”
And despite their heavy loss last week, Palatsides isn’t taking his opponents lightly:
“They’ve changed a bit of the way the play this year, and we’ve noticed that, and they’ve recruited differently compared to previous years”
“The derbies are always different, you don’t know how it’s going to pan out, you don’t know how the boys are going to handle the pressure,”
“But it’s always great to see how they unfold and we just look forward to a good game and a competitive game”
And Palatsides prediction?
“At the end of the day I think its [the result] going to be based on if we play the game that we want to play. If we do I think we’ll come out victorious.
The Youth Melbourne Derby will kick off at 8.00pm at Lakeside Stadium, the second leg of a double header with Melbourne City’s Women, who will open the days proceedings with a game against Adelaide United at 5.00pm. The venue is an alteration from the initially advertised venue of C.B Reserve.
Match Details
Foxtel Y-League Round 3
Sunday, 3 December 2017
Melbourne City FC vs Melbourne Victory FC
Venue: Lakeside Stadium, Albert Park, Melbourne
Kick-off: 8:00pm (AEDT)
