Melbourne City v Sydney FC becoming a rivalry to savour

Melbourne City have emerged as a club most rival fans love to hate.

The matches.

Melbourne City have emerged as a club most rival fans love to hate — think Collingwood in the AFL and Manly in the NRL and you probably won’t be far off the mark.

For those fans the perception is City have been given something of a free ride in the A-League, and they cite the rule changes to accommodate the signing of Tim ­Cahill as well as suggestions the team gets the better of the 50-50 calls when it comes to refereeing.

That debate can be left for another time and place.

But there can be no denying that the takeover of City, formerly known as Melbourne Heart, by the fabulously rich City Football Group has helped add another important level to the national competition.

Where once it was all about the City (Heart) v Melbourne Victory derby, now there are new, intense and often bitter rivalries emerging. We saw it last week when coach John van’t Schip (City) and Brisbane Roar coach John Aloisi went head to head in a war of words that dominated the media in the lead-up to their game.

There is no love lost between van’t Schip and Aloisi and it seems their players have been drawn into the drama.

Not surprisingly, it boiled over on and off the pitch during the 1-1 draw, with some players racing 50 metres to abuse the rival coach on the sidelines while the two coaches and benches exchanged angry words and looks.

While it is unlikely to get to that point when Sydney FC play Melbourne City at ANZ Stadium tonight, you can be sure it is going to be an intense contest on the field as the two sides do battle just nine days after the Victorians lifted the FFA Cup following a 1-0 win in the final.

This will pit first (Sydney) against second on the ladder; the two best teams in the league so far, with Sydney unbeaten after nine games and a Melbourne side hungry to show the cup win was no fluke.

It promises to be a tasty contest, not least for the fact both sides like to play aggressive football and dominate their opponents, and because of some incidents from the cup final that did not go down too well.

There was the targeting of Sydney defender Michael Zullo, who copped a lot of punishment and was not too happy about it in his after-match remarks. Sydney were no angels, either, with Josh Brillante’s tackle on Cahill, which later forced Cahill off the field, raising a lot of eyebrows in the City camp.

Whether retribution is on the minds of some players remains to be seen, but we are likely to see one of the toughest and maybe best games of the season.

Sky Blues coach Graham Arnold says his men are ready for whatever City want to throw at them.

“If that’s what it’s got to be, it’s got to be,” Arnold said during the week.

“The cup final was feisty at times, but that’s football. When you go on the pitch, it’s about dominating and owning every blade of grass on the field.”

Van’t Schip did not make any apologies yesterday for the way his team plays.

“Aggression? When I talk aggression it’s about being aggressive when we have the ball, play attacking football the right way and keeping the ball and creating a lot of chances,” he said.

“When we don’t have the ball, it’s about being aggressive and winning it back again. I have never said it is that you have to kick your opponents and get yellow and red cards. But remember, this is football, not Futsal (indoor soccer). It’s about body contact.”

A loss for City could see them drop nine points behind Sydney, but van’t Schip says he is not looking at the table. Nor does he believe his side would earn title favouritism if the result goes their way.

“It is a big game, yes. We know where we are and we know where they are,” he said. “But this is about performing well and improving. We want to be better than the last time we played them and I think we will be.

“As for favourites, if we win, and we expect to, we will get closer to them. But there are still plenty of games to go.

“We just want to focus on getting better and better during the season.”