The Big Match: While there's life there's hope for Glory

Perth Glory is fighting battles on two fronts - on the field, in the race for the Premier's Plate, and off it, where a salary cap probe could potentially render its season useless. It's all set up for a fascinating game against Sydney FC at nib Stadium on Friday night.

Perth and Sydney players tangle the last time the teams met. (AAP) Source: AAP

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Why you should watch it

The result will have a huge bearing on ladder positions going into the finals.

Perth is in second place, on the same number of points as leader Melbourne Victory but with an inferior goal difference and having played one game more. Sydney is fifth - three points behind Melbourne Victory and Glory.

Sandwiched in there in third and fourth place respectively are Adelaide United, two points off the pace, and Wellington Phoenix, three points off it. We have an incredibly close race for the Premier's Plate and all-important top two with only three rounds to go.

If you want an example of how quickly the ladder can change, here is the movement the top five teams recorded from round 23 to 24: Victory went from second to first, Glory fourth to second, Adelaide fifth to third, Wellington first to fourth and Sydney third to fifth.

It is also morbidly fascinating to watch a team (Perth) that is under investigation for alleged salary cap breaches and which could conceivably be rubbed out of the finals via a points penalty if it cannot show cause why it shouldn't be penalised.

What happened last time they played

Plenty. It was round 16, on 7 February, and Sydney won 3-1 in Perth. Three players were sent off - Perth's Dino Djulbic and Sydney's Jacques Faty received straight red cards after clashing in the 36th minute and Sydney's Nikola Petkovic received a second yellow in the 71st for a deliberate handball.

Sydney got out to a 2-0 lead through goals from Marc Janko, in the 30th minute, and Milos Dimitrijevic, in the 69th. Denis Kramar cut the deficit back to one with a 74th-minute goal, but Bernie Ibini eased late nerves for what was a nine-man team by then with an 89th-minute goal.

Sydney's first two goals came from penalties, after Alex Brosque and then Janko were brought down inside the box. Ibini's goal came after he made an angled run from the right. His shot took a deflection from goalkeeper Danny Vukovic and he headed the loose ball home.

Key battles

Perth won't be getting anything out of this game if it can't deal with Sydney's attack.

Marc Janko is an outstanding front man, Alex Brosque loves to melt into the play from wide of Janko or from just behind the front line and Ibini is dynamite running the ball if he is allowed any space.

Central defenders Michael Thwaite and Dino Djulbic and fullbacks Scott Jamieson and Josh Risdon are going to be forced to make some very important decisions in a hurry during this game. If they get too many of them wrong, opposition goals will be the result.

Why Glory will win

The pitch would be the players' sanctuary at the moment. When they're off the field what they mostly hear about in the media is the salary cap investigation, so they must really look forward to crossing the white stripe for games.

The search for more form-related reasons immediately brings us to the fact it has won two games in a row after a frustrating series of draws and losses saw it lose the competition lead. Those wins were only against strugglers Western Sydney Wanderers and Newcastle Jets, but still.

Why Sydney will win

It's away form this season is extraordinarily good, with seven wins, four draws and no losses. Compare that to its home form of four wins, four draws and five losses.

It went goalless against Adelaide United last weekend, but not for want of trying. It created the vast majority of chances. If it creates a lot of opportunities here, it's hard to think that with an accurate shooter like Marc Janko on-board it will go goalless again.

What the players are saying

It's easier said than done, but Glory defender Dino Djulbic said the players are at least trying to ignore the salary cap probe and get on with football.

"The club has addressed it [the salary cap investigation] with us, and they said that we don’t have anything to worry about, we should just focus on playing," Djulbic said.

"And that’s what we’re doing. Innocent until proven guilty, I think. We don’t know what the decision will be. We’ll keep playing as if nothing is going on. We get paid to play football, so we just do that. For us, there’s no distraction at all."

Sydney goalkeeper Vedran Janjetovic said his team had to believe it was playing a side that would block out the salary cap issue and be its normal self.

"I've never been in that position, so I'm not talking from experience, but I honestly think that when you're a professional, you are so focused on the job at hand that you learn to block out those distractions," he said.

"They'll be aware that it's happening, of course, but once the match kicks off I think they'll only be wanting to get three points in what is a huge match for both teams. We want those points just as badly, so it's going to be a pretty tough battle."

What the coaches are saying

Perth coach Kenny Lowe says the effect of the salary cap investigation was to galvanise the playing group.

"We created a bit of a siege mentality at the beginning of the year. There might be another one on the way," he said.

"The players are in good spirits. They want to finish the season on a high. They want to win the league. The mindset is to win - that’s the bottom line. They’ll go out there and they’ll want to win as much as they’ve wanted to win all year."

Sydney coach Graham Arnold didn't want to risk midfielder Mickael Tavares with a groin injury, especially with long flights involved, but he said he was confident in versatile Rhyan Grant's ability to fill in.

"It was too short a turnaround," Arnold said. "If the game was on Sunday, he probably would have played, but it's Friday night and with travel to Perth, it's not easy sitting in a plane for five hours on the way there with a groin strain.

"I've seen enough of Rhyan over the years, especially since I've been at the club, that he can fill any role and fill it very well."

The villain

Sydney's Vedran Janjetovic has the most clean sheets of any goalkeeper in the A-League this season, with eight. If he's in the sort of form to frustrate the Perth shooters, he's really going to annoy the fans in a big game like this.

The hero

The fans love a player who can still come on and make an impact despite having to spend a lot of time on the bench because he's behind someone else in the pecking order.

Jamie Maclaren got a rare start for Perth in its last game against Newcastle and set up the opening goal for Andy Keogh. It remains to be seen whether Maclaren starts or comes off the bench in this game, but either way he'll put himself about and make things difficult for defenders.

The match in numbers

Sydney has a big advantage over Perth in overall clashes, having won 14 of the 29 matches played. Perth has won seven and eight have been drawn.

The record in Perth is much closer, but Sydney still has a slight advantage, with six wins in the 15 games to Perth's four. Five have been drawn.

The last 10 overall clashes have resulted in five Sydney wins and three to Perth, with two drawn. It's 50-50 in the last five clashes in Perth, with two wins apiece and one draw.

The verdict

Sydney went down 1-0 at home to Adelaide last weekend, but played better in losing that game than Perth did in beating Newcastle 2-0 on the road.

This is a massive game for Sydney. It dropped to fifth with that loss and if it is to finish in the all-important top two and get the first week of the finals off and a home game in the second week, it probably has to win this game. Otherwise, the equation will start getting very hard.

Graham Arnold has negotiated the desperate final stages of the season successfully in the past, with Central Coast Mariners. That experience will come into play this week and his team will be primed for a big performance.

Sydney to win.