By JOSIP ZILIC
North Geelong Warriors take on one of the NPL’s A-League sides in Melbourne City this Saturday at La Trobe Uni Fields for an early season test of character between two sides that are looking to challenge for promotion spots.
Melbourne City boasts A-League players on the periphery looking for John Van’t Schip’s attention in the upcoming A-League finals campaign.
City come off a disappointing 1-1 draw with Whittlesea Ranges where City held the lead and controlled proceedings for the majority of the match only to allow a 10 man Whittlesea team in for a point in the last minute.
The Melburnians will be revved up for a good showing in their first home match against a Warriors side which has shown that it can find the right click but hasn’t been able to get off to vibrant starts in its two matches to date.
North Geelong came away from its first home match against Werribee with a 2-0 win where Werribee had North Geelong on the ropes early on and should have capitalised twice in the first five minutes after breaking the midfield lines of Michael Simms and Vito Cichello with ease.
Werribee forward Bobby Vidanovksi and midfielder Dom Marafioti both had gilt-edge chances sail wide of the post.
North Geelong looked slow out of the blocks and was unable to maintain longer patches of possession to build its tempo until just after the break when coach Micky Colina brought in Michael Anderson who brought his dynamism to the fore, surging past opponents and having shots to test the Werribee resolve.
This lifted the Warriors and was the impetus to swing the contest in their favour.
After a series of attacks North won a corner on 60 minutes, superbly taken by left winger Rudi Saglam, finding the head of Matt Thorne at the front post for the opener.
North Geelong then controlled proceedings and went further ahead courtesy of Michael Anderson who latched onto a through ball, breaking the defensive line of Werribee and neatly finishing past the oncoming Anthony Saric.
Colina was a relieved coach in the end.
“We were slow to start, but overall we’re satisfied that the team was able to lift when it was needed,” he said.
