Thursday, 29 April 2010 10:20 AM
By John Kyrou (Photo by Cindy NItsos)
South Melbourne FC travels to Kevin Bartlett Reserve on Friday night to face fellow top four side Richmond Eagles. The match is South’s second match in a row against a top four side, following the trip to Broadmeadows Valley Park to play Hume City on ANZAC Day.
South go into the match in excellent form, having recorded consecutive away wins over the Melbourne Knights and Hume City. Whilst the Knights game could have gone either way, there was no doubting who the superior team was in the Hume City match as South Melbourne recorded a comprehensive 6-0 victory. Gianni De Nittis found his way into goal scoring form with four goals, joining an elite list of only nine players to have scored four times for South in the one League match. Fernando De Moraes and Daniel Vasilevski also got on the score sheet, with Vasilevski’s goal a contender for Goal of the Year as he hit an outstanding free kick from outside the area.
Richmond’s loss to Oakleigh was their third loss of 2010, however the Eagles have only lost once at home this season. Daniel Visevic and former South forward Jesse Krncevic have had excellent starts to 2010, sharing many of the goals that the Eagles have scored this season. The fact that Richmond is the League’s second highest scoring team with 15 goals (South are the leaders with 16) underlines how influential Krncevic and Visevic are for their team. South’s defence will need to contain these two players in order to earn a third straight clean sheet and more importantly another away victory.
South goalkeeper Peter Zois will be the most determined to keep a clean sheet against Richmond as he returns to play against his former club. In the corresponding fixture last season, Zois was in goals for Richmond as Sebastian Petrovic (33′), Shane Nunes (38′) and De Moraes (94′) cancelled Tom Milardovic’s early penalty (12′) to record a 3-1 victory.
Friday’s match kicks off at 8:30pm at Kevin Bartlett Reserve.