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| Should we be getting used to this man in the green and gold? |
Melbourne Heart right-back Michael Marrone earned a spot in Holger Osieck’s 19-man squad for Wednesday’s World Cup Qualifier against Saudi Arabia at AAMI Park.
While the game is a dead rubber for the Socceroos, Osieck has named a strong mix of local and overseas talent with nine players representing the A-League.
Marrone’s good form this year means he’s the only specialist right-back in the team, meaning fans could see the 25-year-old feature in his first Socceroo appearance.
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| Berisha has been on fire for the Roar this year. |
Brisbane’s Besart Berisha is in red-hot form after scoring four goals in two games. The Albanian hit two goals against Melbourne last weekend before slotting a consecutive double against the Glory in Perth.
Berisha is now within touching distance of Shane Smeltz’s goal-scoring record set in his first season at the now defunct Gold Coast United. The New Zealand striker hit 19 goals that season and Berisha’s double against Perth moves him to 17 goals, two away from equaling the record.
Here at The Football Sack we’ve produced a heat-map image of Berisha during Brisbane’s 3-0 against Perth to show you just how ‘hot’ the Albanian is right now.
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| The ‘Nix probably would’ve stopped it from going in anyway |
Sydney’s finals hopes were dealt a serious blow on Saturday after a deflating 1-0 loss to Wellington at the SFS. After consecutive wins against Perth and Adelaide things were starting to look up for the Sky Blues but they failed to break down the tough, defensive Phoenix at home.
Paul Ifill scored his first headed goal of the season to put the New Zealanders ahead before a glut of chances fell to the Sydney-siders who threw everything but the kitchen sink at the visiting side.
It’s a good thing they didn’t as well because with the luck they had on the day Paston would probably have saved it… or Beauchamp might have put it over the bar himself.
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| A two game penalty? That’s a slap in the face |
During Brisbane’s trip to Perth on Saturday the Roar came away with all three points after a 3-0 win. Unfortunately for Ange Postecoglou’s side they are now without Henrique after the Brazilian was slapped with a two match ban after retaliating to an errant elbow from Perth skipper Jacob Burns.
Henrique was shown a straight red for the incident but most were left wondering if the Roar number 10 had forgotten to tell Burns the set-up to the joke…
Q. What did the five fingers say to the face?
A. SLAP*
Magilton goes back to the Drawing Board Gold Coast has been stealing all the headlines lately and they managed it again by holding onto a point against luckless Jim Magilton’s Melbourne Victory.
Maceo Rigters put the home side into the lead before an instant reply for Carlos Hernandez levelled the scores. The Victory needed a spark from somewhere but despite the attacking inspiration of Hernandez, Kewell, Rojas and Thompson the scores remained at 1-1.
The result takes Jim back to the drawing board with finals almost out of reach for the blue half of Melbourne.