City welcome ACLE challenge as Arzani, Delbridge near return
As Daniel Arzani and Harrison Delbridge prepare to return, Melbourne City are back on the Asian grind this week, heading straight for Korea after Saturday's Western Sydney clash. And they welcome it.
As Daniel Arzani and Harrison Delbridge prepare to make their returns, Melbourne City will resume its Asian grind this week, travelling to face Western Sydney on Saturday before then jumping straight on a plane for an Asian Champions League Elite (ACLE) clash with Korean outfit Ulsan HD. And given that these rapid turnarounds correlated with his side’s best form this season, they’re rapid turnarounds that coach Aurelio Vidmar welcomes.
Late goals from Medin Memeti and Marcus Younis ensured City salvaged a 2-2 draw from their trip to Wellington last Friday, mitigating (but not eliminating) the alarm bells that were ringing following their 6-2 hammering at the hands of Macarthur the week prior.
The point earned by their comeback ensured they remained in the A-League Men’s top six heading into this Saturday’s clash with Western Sydney, but only barely: only above seventh-placed Brisbane on goal difference and just the two points clear of the tenth-placed Phoenix.
Admittedly, they’re only three points back of the fourth-placed Bulls and still within two games of top-of-the-tree Newcastle, showing the compact nature of the competition has remained in place for 2025-26. But whereas their nearest rivals will all be afforded the luxury of solely focusing on their league commitments in the weeks ahead – Brisbane hosting Central Coast on Saturday afternoon, while Victory travels to Wellington on Friday – they’ll also be tasked with facing off with Korean sides Ulsan and Gangwon FC in the coming weeks.
Currently sitting fourth in the ACLE’s eastern region, a win in either of those two games would almost certainly be enough to ensure their progression to the knockout stages for the first time in their history, as well as become the first A-League side since the COVID-era Melbourne Victory to do so. However, while the long trek to Ulsan will add a logistical challenge, and they’ll face Victory in the season’s final derby three days after hosting Gangwon, their early-season form, in which they lost just a single league game after featuring in Asian competition, suggests this isn’t something to be feared.
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“We’ve never dreaded it, that’s for sure,” said Vidmar. “I think the players like it; we’ve really managed that area really well. We’ve played the A-League, and then we’ve backed up with strong performances in the ACLE. I’m expecting the same. We’re coming to the back end of the season and the back end of the ACLE [group stages], and it’s going to be a really important period for us now.
“We need to start winning some games in the A-League, and then also wanting and being desperate enough to be the first [City] team to qualify for the next round. That’s really important for us. We’ve had a chat this morning, our focus is solely on what’s going to happen tomorrow against the Wanderers. And then once we get to Ulsan, we can focus on what we need to do for that game.
“But it’s an exciting period. Everyone wants to do well. We’ve got a lot of healthy competition now with the new boys coming in. We’ve always been in a good frame of mind. It’s about now trying to get our good training performances into some winning performances on the pitch.”
The defending champions are set to be boosted for their busy schedule by the return of Nathaniel Atkinson from suspension; however are set to be without Japanese attacker Takeshi Kanamori for at least a couple of months after he sustained an MCL injury.
Returning to City after spending multiple seasons with Incheon United in the Korean first and second tiers, Harrison Delbridge is also in line to make his re-debut in the coming fixtures — Vidmar declaring his general fitness good, but his match fitness still getting up to speed given his three-month layoff after the Korean league’s end.
Regardless of his contributions off the pitch, however, the centreback’s knowledge gleaned from multiple years on the peninsula is already being put to good use.
“He’s already spoken to us about how terrible the trip to Ulsan is,” grinned Vidmar. “A difficult place to get to.
“When it comes to Ulsan, they’ve got a new coach [Kim Hyun-seok, who scored more than 100 goals for Ulsan in his playing days] and they’ve changed quite a bit. So we’re battling a little bit of an unknown when we play them next week.”
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Further up the field, after arriving on loan from Ferencvárosi, albeit having logged very few actual minutes with the Hungarian powers and having had a minor clean-up in his knee in December, Arzani was described as being much further along in his fitness than Delbridge and the more likely of the two to play, even if he’s not quite yet ready to start.
“Daniel hasn’t had that big a break as Delly has, so he’s looking much, much better as these last two weeks have gone by,” said Vidmar. “So he’s looking much better, definitely. He’s probably, if anyone’s going to have game time that we feel a little bit more confident in, it’s probably him at this stage.”
The problem for the coach, however, is just where he fits Arzani into the side once he’s ready to start. Vidmar has previously made clear that the World Cup hopeful has been brought in to start, but fellow loanee Marcus Younis has now scored in his first-two appearances since arriving from Brøndby on loan, while winger Medin Memeti has netted in three straight games.
One alternative would potentially be to use the latter as a striker, a position he played in youth sides; however, that would mean relegating Max Caputo, whose best form also coincided with the short-Asian turnarounds, to the bench.
“That’s that part of my job, how it’s all going to work,” said Vidmar. “When you have a player of Daniel’s quality, then you know you’re going to have to find room somewhere. And unfortunately, that’s how it is. Definitely, Daniel is better in the team than out of the team.”
On the long-term injured front, Vidmar said that Socceroo attacker Mat Leckie and Kosovar midfielder Elbasan Rashani were both tracking well in their recoveries and loomed as likely inclusions in group training once the side returned from Korea.