Friday, 24 April 2009 8:57 AM
In a crucial Round 8 VPL contest, South Melbourne FC will need to travel Broadmeadows to take on the in-form Hume City on Saturday.
With the contest falling on ANZAC Day, South Melbourne has been given the opportunity to challenge Hume City for the inaugural ANZAC Day Cup.
The Blues will head into the game on the back of 5 undefeated matches, after capturing a last-gasp draw away to Green Gully last weekend. In what was a see-sawing and quite physical contest, South managed to salvage a point after Gianni De Nittis was able to latch onto a loose ball in the area, before sending it hurtling past the Gully keeper to conclude a valiant South Melbourne fight back.
It is that fighting spirit and commitment that will give South immense confidence heading into this week’s contest against an opponent who is undefeated at their new home venue over the last 4 games. This includes a tough and narrow win over the Melbourne Knights and a comprehensive thumping of Preston in the last two match days.
If South are to replicate the results of the past five weeks, they will continue to rely on the work ethic shown by Michael Michalakopoulos’ men, leading from the midfield where the likes of captain Rama Tavsancioglu, Joseph Youssef and Sebastian Petrovic will be expected to continue to do plenty of hard work.
Up front, South will be looking once again at the same trio to provide them with the attacking edge. With the Blues being the most prolific goal-scoring team in the competition, they will be expecting Vaughan Coveny, Goran Zoric and Gianni De Nittis to break down the Hume defence, whilst midfield maestro Fernando will be looking to find his way onto the score-sheet for the fourth time this season.
Leading the charge for Hume will be former South Melbourne championship player Tansel Baser. The experienced defensive midfielder notched up 106 games in his 7 years at South, whilst also playing a leading role in the most recent VPL Championship win against Altona in 2006. Baser will be joined by a plethora of hardened VPL players including former Preston captain Tony Sterjovski, Serder Pir and goalkeeper Lou Acevski.
The Broadmeadows based club also have current Australian Under 20 Representative Jason Davidson as a key player in their ranks. Davidson is the son of former South Melbourne legend and ex-Socceroo Alan Davidson, who played 176 games for the Blue and Whites in a stellar 9 seasons with the club.
The game kicks off at Broadmeadows Valley Reserve at 3.30pm, with an ANZAC Day ceremony commencing at 3pm