On Friday (7), the new season of Australian professional football will resume, and the first round of the focus of the match will be the last season's third-place finisher, Western United, to challenge the regular season champion, Melbourne City, on the road. Although Melbourne City dominated the regular season, they lost to Western Union in the playoff final. In this rematch, both sides have limited adjustments to their lineups, and Western Union's technical style is expected to beat Melbourne City again, with a high probability of winning on the road.
Melbourne City has not changed much in the new season, still relying on core players such as Jimmy McCarron, Nabbott, Mafeliki and Jimmyson. However, the average age of the team is high, and the new Dutch midfielder Yunda Wynn is already 30 years old, which is a little bit lack of vitality, and is often at a disadvantage when facing skilled and well-organized opponents. Another hidden danger for Melbourne City is that they failed to bring in a new goalkeeper before the season, and the team will continue to rely on Tang Gao Hua, who made a number of mistakes last season. It seems that this goalkeeper is unable to adapt to Kiesloppau's backcourt tactics, and he may become a time bomb at any time.
Western Union finished third in the regular season, but made it all the way to the playoffs and finally won the historic AFL Championship. In the new season, they have two stars, Diawendi and Zushua Liston, in both offense and defense, and also introduced Malian international midfielder Doumbia, which further strengthened their overall strength. The lineup and tactics of the two teams remain basically unchanged in the new season. Looking back at the past five meetings, Western Union has an undefeated record with four wins and one draw, and is expected to continue to maintain the suppression of Melbourne City in this game.
