Melbourne Victory Vs Gamba Osaka
Who do you think will have a win tonight?
I think Gamba will win quite easily even though im a victory fan, they have a lot more to spend on players have a bigger team and victory doesnt have archie.
Heres a write up from theworldgame.com.au
Three weeks after crashing to a shock 3-1 defeat against Thailand’s Chonburi in steamy Bangkok, Victory will try to turn on their own heat at Telstra Dome as they attempt to get back on track.
Victory, who failed to reach the A-League finals, played a magnificent match to beat Chunnam Dragons of Korea Republic 2-0 in their first match but came a cropper against the Thais when they ran out of gas in the last 15 minutes of the match.
Gamba, the Japanese side that qualified for the ACL as beaten finalists of the Emperor’s Cup, are expected to provide the Australian champions of 2007 with a stern test. At the weekend they beat Shimizu S-Pulse 2-0.
But it’s the type of occasion that could bring out the best from inconsistent Victory, coach Ernie Merrick said.
“It’s very exciting. Gamba are one of the best teams in Asia and they are playing here at the Telstra Dome,” Merrick said.
“The concept of the Champions League is great and to have Australia involved now is fantastic.”
“We were planning to meet Gamba as the top team on the ladder but it has not quite worked out that way.”
“There is only one point separating the top three teams in the group so it is very important that we win tomorrow night.”
Merrick, who will be without striker Archie Thompson who has a knee injury sustained in the early stages of last month’s World Cup qualifier between Australia and China in Kunming, said he was expecting Gamba to be attack-minded because “they need points too”.
“They will play their usual very attacking game, committing numbers forward with strikers and midfielders and the two fullbacks who like to push on,” he said.
“So that’s better than if we have to face a team that comes here to smother the game and shut up shop in front of the penalty box.”
“In the A-League we struggled against teams like Newcastle that came here and sat back.”
Merrick refused to be overawed by the reputation that followed Gamba all the way from Osaka of a rich and ambitious club crammed with international players.
“You can’t worry about this,” he said. “The fact that they signed nine new players and that they have seven internationals and a few Brazilians is just a fact of life.”
“We’re a good team with high quality players, too. We finished off the league season pretty well and at home with the crowd behind us we perform well.”
“We will play to our strengths and I think we have the necessary quality among our players to get a win.”
Skipper Kevin Muscat said that it was important for Victory not to get carried away with the big occasion.
“Sometimes you tend to worry too much about the opposition and forget about what you are supposed to be doing yourself,” he said.
“On the night if we play as well as we can and we get our tactics right when we have the ball the result will look after itself. But in a game like this everyone’s got to put in.”
“Archie is not playing so we will have to deal with that but this might give the opposition a different headache because they probably won’t know where the threat will come from. This is a game they cannot afford to lose either.”
Victory had their final training session at Telstra Dome on Tuesday and Merrick said he was glad to report that there are no injury concerns.
“There are no injuries, the pitch is great and we all ready to rock and roll at seven-thirty,” Merrick said.
The Victory coach said he was “no great believer in patience” when asked how important would a patient approach be on Wednesday night.
“I know we talk about it but I think it’s confused with the intensity of the game,” he said.
“We have to be relentless and score goals. Sometimes you have to wait for the right opportunity.”
“We do not have to score in the first minute but the sooner we score the better.”
Victory are expecting a crowd of about 25,000 for the match.
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