Top strikers clash in vital A-League shootout
Socceroos striker Jamie Maclaren and leading goalscorer Adam Le Fondre will vie for the A-League’s top striker’s mantle in today’s blockbuster at Jubilee Stadium in Sydney.
The top-of-the-table clash has more than three points at stake, with the competition’s leading strikers going head-to-head.
Melbourne City’s Maclaren has scored 10 goals this season, while Le Fondre has been in sensational form, helping Sydney FC to the top of the ladder with 11 goals for the year.
Sydney coach Steve Corica expects both players will be out to take top spot before 2019 comes to an end, in what many believe to be the grand final preview.
‘‘Both will want to be the leading goal-scorer at the end of the season,’’ he said.
‘‘You’ve got probably the two best strikers at the moment scoring goals and coming up against each other and I’m pretty sure they want to put one over each other,’’ he said.
It shapes as the biggest game of the A-League season so far, with coach Erick Mombaert’s men six points behind the Sky Blues on the ladder.
The French manager believes if City play their best they can challenge the hosts, saying Wellington showed them what’s possible in last week’s 2-2 draw.
The draw snapped a six-game winning streak for Sydney FC, while City are coming off a 2-1 loss to cross-town rivals Melbourne Victory.
Despite sitting second on the ladder, City have not scored backto-back wins since early
November. City have traditionally struggled with consistency and Mombaerts says it’s been a challenge to instil a new culture of mental toughness at the club.
‘‘We need to be more constant and consistent. Maybe it takes time to do this, to be more constant. In our style of play, the best way is to be very strong mentally,’’ he said.
‘‘Sometimes we are doing so well and then we drop a little bit mentally, and if we drop a little bit it’s not enough, so we need to work on this to be more consistent in the mental aspect.
‘‘We failed on this against Victory.’’ Sydney will be without Michael Zullo for at least another week, while Milos Ninkovic is expected to play after missing the first half of last week’s draw with Wellington.