City Insider - City v Brisbane - Friday 19 November, 2021

CITY INSIDER

BRISBANE ROAR FRIDAY 19 NOVEMBER AAMI PARK

MELBOURNE CITY v BRISBANE ROAR

CITY INSIDER FRIDAY 19 NOVEMBER

CAPTAIN’S MESSAGE WE MAY HAVE GOTTEN A SMALL TASTE OF THE FEELING LAST FRIDAY, BUT WE JUST CAN’T WAIT TO BE BACK PLAYING IN FRONT OF YOU ALL AT AAMI PARK TONIGHT FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS SEASON. It’s been a long pre-season for us boys, but the work we’ve put in has been made easier by the fact that we’ve all got the same goal in our sights.

Winning the Premiership and Championship last year was tough, but defending our title will be even tougher.

You would all have heard PK talk about still being the hunters this season and it’s true – we’re still the hunters because we’re just as hungry as ever.

I know personally that there is plenty that I want to achieve in the new season; winning more silverware with this group of boys would be huge, but our involvement in the Asian Champions League looms as an enormous opportunity for the Club I had a taste of what it’s like to play in a Champions League Final early in my career and I’ve been hungry to return to that stage ever since. To be able to get back there over a decade later, now as a leader of an incredible group of players, would really be something special.

While it’s nice to have ambitions, those kinds of oncein-a-lifetime opportunities don’t come around without hard work, belief and a strong team environment.

Fortunately, I believe that we’ve got a culture built on the latter two. All that’s left is to continue putting in that hard work every day.

Coming into tonight’s game, there’s been a positive energy amongst the boys when we’re out on the track; we’re excited, we’re eager, and I’m sure that you’ve been feeling the exact same way.

There’s an expectation when you’re walking out onto the pitch with the gold A-Leagues badge on your chest for the first time.

We’re not here to be title defenders though, we’re here to be title winners and tonight is the first step.

See you in the stands, C’mon City!

Scott Jamieson Melbourne City FC captain

Together We Move

NISSAN AD

Melbourne City FC members can save $800* on a new Nissan Navara Click here to find out more.

*Terms and Conditions apply.

Visit www.nissan.com.au/mcfcmemberoffer for full details.

MELBOURNE CITY v BRISBANE ROAR

CITY INSIDER FRIDAY 19 NOVEMBER

FOOTBALL IS BACK! YOUR CITY BOYS WILL BE GETTING THEIR LEAGUE TITLE DEFENCE UNDERWAY WITH A HUGE SEASON OPENER AGAINST BRISBANE ROAR AT AAMI PARK TONIGHT AND WE CAN HARDLY WAIT! The boys have had a strong build-up to lead into tonight’s clash, going undefeated in our three-game pre-season friendly series against Western United before progressing to the FFA Cup Round of 16 thanks to a 0-3 away win over South Melbourne last Friday.

We were all over South in that clash, enjoying 82.3% of possession and recording 24 shots to 6.

It was through Connor Metcalfe that South’s resistance was initially broken in the 23rd, with the midfielder ghosting into the six-yard box to find the back of the net from Nathaniel

Atkinson’s fizzed ball across the area from the right.

Despite the boys playing well and more goals seeming likely, it wasn’t until the 66th minute that we were able to build on our lead, this time through Scott Galloway. The full-back capitalised on an intelligent backheel flick into the box by Atkinson, with the duo combing again for the third.

The Roar have also enjoyed a positive start to their 2021/22 competitive season, having already progressed to the FFA Cup Quarter Finals thanks to comfortable wins over Peninsula Power and Lions FC in the

preceding rounds.

Tonight, we may be able to welcome back Socceroos Mathew Leckie, Jamie Maclaren and Andrew Nabbout, with the trio all in contention having returned from international duties earlier in the week.

We’ve got an incredible home record against the Roar, having never failed to score in these fixtures and not having lost against Brisbane at AAMI Park since November 2010.

Let’s hope that awesome run of form continues in tonight’s game. C’mon City!

A-LEAGUE MEN PREVIEW

DANGER PLAYER

SEASON STATS - BRISBANE ROAR

TOM ALDRED One of the strongest central defenders is the Isuzu UTE A-League is Roar captain Tom Aldred.

The Scottish centre back is entering his third season in Australia, and he potentially could face one of the biggest tasks in the country in tonight season-opener, stopping City’s all Socceroos front three.

While we won’t know until kick-off the makeup of City’s attack, after the star trio have been away on national team commitment, last season’s Finals Series proved no matter who is up top for City, they can cause issues for opposition defences.

TBC

0

LEAGUE POSITION

GAMES WON

0

0

GOALS SCORED

GOALS CONCEDED

A-LEAGUE LADDER

LAST RESULT

LAST TIME WE MET

LIONS FC

0

BRISBANE

3

BRISBANE

4

MELBOURNE CITY

0

FFA Cup 2020/21 - Round of 16 Sunday 24 October, 2021 Lions Stadium

VIDEO HIGLIGHTS

A-League 2020/21 - Round 22 Tuesday 25 May, 2021 Moreton Daily Stadium

VIDEO HIGLIGHTS

Switch play on how you pay.

Laybuy lets you receive your purchase now and spread the total cost over 6 weekly, automatic payments.

Always interest-free.

Sign up now in minutes via the app

MELBOURNE CITY v BRISBANE ROAR

CITY INSIDER FRIDAY 19 NOVEMBER

ATKINSON: “I WANT TO BE A SOCCEROO” BETWEEN BECOMING AN A-LEAGUE PREMIER AND CHAMPION WITH MELBOURNE CITY AND REPRESENTING HIS COUNTRY AT THE OLYMPICS, FACING SOME OF THE BIGGEST FOOTBALLING NATIONS IN THE WORLD IN DOING SO, ATKINSON HAS EMERGED AS ONE OF AUSTRALIA’S BRIGHTEST DEFENSIVE PROSPECTS. “Going to an Olympics and playing against some of the best players in the world – and they play at the best clubs in the world – it was a good eye-opener and obviously to hold your own against some of the best in the world, it’s good motivation to push on and hopefully make a career like them,” Atkinson said.

The next step in ‘making a career like them’ will be pushing for a senior Socceroos callup, a target that is firmly in the young full-back’s sights after several years in Australia’s youth representative ranks.

“It’s a big driving factor (to play for Australia), when you’re young everyone wants to play for the Socceroos,” he said, “I’ve done it for the Under 23’s and in the Olympics and obviously the World Cup is coming up.

“That’s definitely my driving motivation for this year, to play the best football that I can and get into the best situation to put my name forward.”

Acknowledging the achievements of teammate Connor Metcalfe, who will similarly be eyeing off season 2021/22 as an opportunity to earn more Socceroos call-ups,

Atkinson shed light on national team manager Graham Arnold’s advice for young players in similar situations to the City pair.

“The main message for me, Connor and all those boys was start this season off well and put your name forward and anything’s possible after that,” Atkinson said.

Metcalfe and Atkinson have undergone much of their footballing education and journey together at City Football Academy and have accordingly shared in each other’s achievements.

“I’ve come through the academy with Connor, and I’ve seen how far he’s developed and that’s good motivation for me also,” Atkinson said.

The full-back also expressing his sympathy for Metcalfe missing out on City’s Championship win in June.

“Obviously he got the experience winning the league, but this is Australia’s finals football, and you want to play in the biggest games - and those are the biggest games.”

On the topic of silverware, there’s no doubt about the

ambitions of Atkinson and the playing group for the new season: “We want to we win it (the league title) again and hopefully add an Asian Championship to the trophy cabinet,” he said.

But silverware won’t just present itself to the City squad, and manager Patrick Kisnorbo has been eager to stamp out any complacency early in the preseason.

“We’ve had a lot of discussions with Patty saying obviously we’re the reigning Champions and that everyone wants to hunt us, but he’s just trying to keep us in the same mentality of ‘We want to be the hunters still,” Atkinson said.

“It’s normal to come into the season and be a bit lackadaisical in the way you go with things, obviously you’ve won trophies … but I think PK’s the best person to keep us in line.”

MATCH SQUADS

HEAD COACH: PATRICK KISNORBO

A-LEAGUE MEN

1. TOM GLOVER

2. SCOTT GALLOWAY

3. SCOTT JAMIESON

4. NUNO REIS

5. ROSTYN GRIFFITHS

7. MATT LECKIE

8. AIDEN O’NEILL

9. JAMIE MACLAREN

10. FLORIN BERENGUER

13. NATHANIEL ATKINSON

15. ANDREW NABBOUT

16. TARAS GOMULKA

17. STEFAN COLACOVSKI

18. CONNOR METCALFE

20.MANUEL PUCCIARELLI

22. CURTIS GOOD

23. MARCO TILIO

33. MATT SUTTON

34. JORDAN HALL

36. KERRIN STOKES

37. MAX CAPUTO

38. JORDAN BOS

42. AHMED TALEB

35. RAPHAEL BORGES RODRIGUES

39. ANTHONY LESIOTIS

1 12

MACKLIN FREKE JORDAN HOLMES

2 3 4 5 16 19 27 37

SCOTT NEVILLE COREY BROWN ANTON MLINARIC TOM ALDRED JOSH BRINDLE-SOUTH JACK HINGERT KAI TREWIN JACKSON HART-PHILLIPS

7 8 13 15 26 34 35

RAHMAT AKBARI MATTI STEINMANN HENRY HORE JESSE DALEY JAY O’SHEA DOMINIC HORWOOD LOUIS ZABALA

9 10 11 21 23

LUKE IVANOVIC NIKOLA MILEUSNIC JEZ LOFTHOUSE NICOLAS OLSEN JUAN LESCANO

HEAD COACH: WARREN MOON

BRISBANE ROAR

MELBOURNE CITY v BRISBANE ROAR

CITY INSIDER FRIDAY 19 NOVEMBER

KISNORBO: “WE’RE STILL THE HUNTER” NOW HAVING SIGNED ON THROUGH THE END OF THE 2024/25 SEASON, A-LEAGUE MEN HEAD COACH PATRICK KISNORBO CERTAINLY ISN’T LETTING THE SQUAD REST ON ITS LAURELS. When a team has had as much success as City has recently, the chatter in the media is often centred around going from being the ‘hunted’ to the ‘hunter’, but Kisnorbo said it certainly wasn’t the case in his squad.

“I’ve changed that,” he said.

“We’re not the ‘hunted’, we’re still the ‘hunter’. We want to improve on what we’ve done and there are other things that we want to achieve.”

The nights of May 22 and June 27 will live in City fans’ memories forever – and rightly so – but for Kisnorbo and the playing squad, they are distant memories as the new season begins.

“It’s always going to be spoken about, but we always want to improve and that’s our main focus here - trying to improve and get better,” Kisnorbo said.

“What happened last season happened last season, so we are trying to hunt to get better and hopefully we can do that this season.”

There hasn’t been a whole lot of movement within the Championship winning squad, which throughout the history of the A-Leagues, hasn’t always

been the case. City has worked hard to create consistency and stability – a hallmark of successful clubs around the world.

The off-season saw the departures of fan favourite Adrian Luna as well as Craig Noone – who City fans will always remember for scoring the goal that sealed the Club’s first Premiers Plate.

While two quality players did depart the City, don’t expect there to be a big drop off on the pitch with two big signings coming in to replace them.

Current Socceroos captain Mathew Leckie is set to ignite the wings of AAMI Park this season, returning to Australia after spending the last decade in Germany’s Bundesliga.

Lesser known to Australian football fans but also with vast experience is one of Europe’s top leagues, is Italian attacker Manuel Pucciarelli. Capable of playing virtually any position in the attacking third, his versatility will provide a point of difference to Kisnorbo’s squad this season.

“He brings a vast amount of experience from his time in the Serie A and will add some variety to our squad,” Kisnorbo

said.

“He picks up fantastic positions on the pitch and there’s a lot of different things he can do and provide for us, so we’re very happy to have him here.”

City’s pre-season has differed due to the Club’s move out to the South East. While the Casey Fields facility isn’t completely finished, Kisnorbo said the Men’s squad was very fortunate to have things in place for them this season.

“They are building more and more still, it’s great now but once it’s fully finished it will be absolutely fantastic,” Kisnorbo said.

“We want to create the best training environment for everyone involved at the Club.

“The people here are great, and we’ve certainly been welcomed with open arms. They come and watch us and speak to us every day, and we are very fortunate to be a part of the South East community.”

MELBOURNE CITY v BRISBANE ROAR

KIDS ZONE

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE SPOT THE 4 DIFFERENCES IN THE PICTURES

CITY INSIDER FRIDAY 19 NOVEMBER

PRESENTED BY

LOTUS)LIVING

meet the team NAME: Scott Galloway AGE: 26 POSITION: Defender NATIONALITY: Australian PREVIOUS CLUB: Adelaide United JUNIOR CLUB: Cockburn City FAVOURITE FOOD: Pasta/Nandos FAVOURITE TV SHOW: Power

WORD SEARCH

HEAD TO OUR ONLINE INTERACTIVE WORD SEARCH TO COMPLETE THIS WEEK’S CITY CROSSWORD!

XBOX or PlayStation: PlayStation IF I WASN’T A FOOTBALLER I’D BE: Strength & Conditioning Coach FAVOURITE HOLIDAY DESTINATION: Bali

LAYBUY AD

Off

*

Land and Townhomes Kick goals with a new home or an investment. *Exclusive to Melbourne City FC members. For full t&c’s visit gojubilee.com.au

gojubilee.com.au