This Saturday the Central Coast Mariners will go head to head with arch rivals Sydney FC for the second time in less than a month and both sides will cross the white line with a point to prove.
Ahead of the third encounter between the Mariners and the Sky Blues throughout the 2014/15 Hyundai A-League campaign, here are some key statistics that may come into play. Impress your mates in the pub by throwing a few stats their way:
Anthony Caceres – the workhorse:
After Tuesday night’s AFC Champions League qualifying play-off, Head Coach Phil Moss gave full credit to young Caceres for his performance against a quality Guangzhou R&F outfit and challenged the midfielder to take that form across to this weekend.
As far as the Hyundai A-League goes, Caceres has controlled the midfield and dictated play in both attack and defence who leads the Mariners in the ‘tackles attempted’ stat with 45 this season.
The young gun’s efforts in the front third are also evident in the passing stats with Caceres sitting 8th in the league for passes completed (438) with an impressive 87% success rate – which ranks number one for the Mariners.
Deadlock for total goals:
As it stands, from season one of the Hyundai A-League until now – the Central Coast Mariners and Sydney FC are deadlocked on total goals scored against one another with the total score standing at 46 – 46.
This weekend could see the deadlock broken with a win to either side; both teams have been trigger-happy of late with Sydney FC having scored as many goals in the last three games as they had in their previous 12 (11 goals).
The Mariners on the other hand have not been so lucky beating the keeper but have been accurate in front of goals, leading the Hyundai A-League in shot accuracy with 54% of the yellow and navy’s shots hitting the target.
What does Mossy say?
“I’ve got a motivated bunch of players heading down to Sydney tomorrow and I’m expecting a much improved performance from the last time we met, the word revenge has been mentioned a couple of times this week, there’s no doubt.”
“I’ll say it for the third time this season, it’s not about Phil Moss & Graham Arnold it’s about the two teams, the two clubs and the two sets of supporters.”
“We’re going there to win it, there’s no doubt. There’s 10 weeks left in the season and we need to put some results together and points on the board in that 10 weeks.”
“They (Sydney) have dangerous players in the top third and we basically gifted them four out of the five goals in our last hit out. There’s no doubt we have to be a long way from where we were that night.
“The other night against Guangzhou we played ourselves into some form, we were threatening that night, although we were disappointed with the result we need to take that confidence into tomorrow night.”
Match details:
Saturday 21 February 2015
Match: Sydney FC vs. Central Coast Mariners – Hyundai A-League 2014/15 Round 18
Venue: Allianz Stadium, Sydney
Kick-off: 5:00pm (AEDT)
Television: Live on FOX SPORTS 505
Radio: Live on ABC Grandstand & Coast FM
Twitter: Join the match conversation using #SYDvCCM #CCMFC
