Canberra United are back in action at McKellar Park for the first time in over a month, welcoming third placed Melbourne Victory for a crucial early season clash as the Ninja A-League reaches Round Seven.
After a stretch of matches away, it is a welcome return home for the squad, the first of two fixtures at McKellar over the festive period. A win is top of the Christmas wish list of course, as United have not tasted victory since the Round Two trip over the Tasman to play Wellington Pheonix.
In their Round Six clash against the ladder leading Melbourne City, United started and ended the match brightly, with a brace from ace striker Michelle Heyman, but four goals from the hosts condemned the team in green to defeat on the road.
Our visitors, Victory, come into this match in good form. Despite conceding a late goal to Wellington in Round Six to share the points, Victory are currently sitting in third place, with only the one loss to their name so far this campaign.
Recent encounters against Melbourne haven’t been particularly kind to Canberra, with our last win over the Victory coming as far back as January 2017.
However, there is never much in it when we battle the Navy Blue side, with four draws in the last seven games, and Victory winning by only a single goal in two encounters, going along with a two-goal win, in which Canberra was reduced to ten players on the field, suggesting this will be a tight clash.
Victory boasts one of the best attacks in the league so far in the 2024/25 season, with twelve goals scored to date. Striker Emily Gielnik has been in dangerous form to start, with six goals in five games, leading the race for the Golden Boot after an explosive start to the campaign.
As this is the closest match to Christmas, as part of the matchday, Canberra United are asking for donations for the annual Christmas Gift appeal, to help make the holidays special for those unfortunate enough to be spending the lead-up to the festive season, or even Christmas Day itself, in hospital.
Supporters can bring any gifts to the match to be loaded pre-match into the Canberra United Ute which will be parked just outside the main entrance to the ground.
