Canberra United’s 2024/25 Ninja A-League preparations ramp up a gear as they travel to Albury to meet Melbourne Victory, three times A-League champions, in a pre-season friendly encounter.
The Victory always provide a stern challenge for United, an come into the new campaign seeking to improve on a 2023/24 season that saw them finish fourth on the table before losing both their Finals matches to Newcastle Jets and to Sydney FC.
Having lost twice to Victory during the campaign last season, 2-0 in Victoria and the last-gasp heartbreaking 2-3 loss at McKellar Park courtesy of goal deep into stoppage time from Emily Gielnik, the competition provided by Victory will be a good barometer of progress.
Canberra’s initial signs are looking good, a 6-0 win over the National Premier League All-Stars allowing the team to practice the attacking threat in a match in which the team created numerous goalscoring chances, Michelle Heyman and Maja Markovski bagging a brace apiece.
Heyman will be absent from his encounter, away on Matildas international duty as the national squad prepares to take on Switzerland and Germany, so United Head Coach Antoni Jagarinec will need to reshuffle his attacking line-up, looking at an alternative shape to what we may see in the A-League.
Other than Heyman, Jagarinec will take the rest of his squad for the fixture, likely to give minutes to each player as he seeks the correct unit to begin the A-League campaign against Brisbane Roar at McKellar Park on Saturday 2 November.
MATCH DETAILS
Friday 25 October 2024
Melbourne Victory v Canberra United
(Lavington Spots Ground, Albury, 18:20)
Please note this match will not be streamed.
