Sunday 27th April
Canberra FC v Tuggeranong United (Deakin Stadium)
Two teams in good form meet at Deakin Stadium in Round 3 of the National Premier Leagues: Capital Football as defending League Champions Canberra FC welcomes a new-look Tuggeranong United for a highly anticipated match-up. FC looked in ominous form in their opening match of the campaign after shaking off a jittery first fifty minutes to blow away the Monaro Panthers 7-3 at the Riverside Stadium a fortnight ago. That Head Coach Ray Junna could call on the likes of Kaz Patafta, Matt Grbesa and Alex Oloriegbe from the bench showcased just what a formidable opponent Canberra FC will be for their challengers in 2014. Defensively they are yet to convince with the Panthers creating a sizeable number of chances with only the reactions of Jakob Cole preventing his team from being further behind before they turned the match around. And that will be something that Tuggeranong will look to exploit as they aim to end a run of poor form at the home of Canberra FC. United won their first match of the season last week after falling to Belconnen in the only game that survived Round 1’s washout. In defeating Canberra City they looked structurally sound, difficult to break down and dangerous on the break. They’ll need to be in similar parsimonious form to come away with a reward here.

Canberra City v Woden Valley (Gungahlin Enclosed)
Two teams that suffered defeat on the opening day of the season meet as Canberra City take on Woden Valley at Gungahlin Enclosed. After a delay due to the weather City will finally get to christen their new home ground as they take to the turf at Gungahlin for the first time in this Round 3 clash and with Woden providing the opposition an exciting match should be in prospect. Both teams suffered defeats in their opening match of the season, after seeing their respective Round 1 ties called off, but both went close to at least registering a point. Woden went down 2-4 to ten-man Belconnen United, pushing the Blue Devils all the way before conceding late on, and it was a similar tale for City as they got their season underway last Tuesday evening, falling to a 0-1 loss to Tuggeranong United with the decisive goal not coming until nine minutes from the full-time whistle. Both teams will be eyeing this match as a chance to get three points and a chance to play on grass after an extensive season build-up on the synthetic of Hawker Football Centre. Both Woden and City have a solid structure and are difficult to break down so don’t be surprised if the spoils are shared at the conclusion of this historic fixture.

Belconnen United v FFA COE (McKellar Park)
Early league leaders Belconnen United will be aiming to make it three in a row when they entertain the FFA Centre of Excellence (COE), formerly the AIS, at McKellar Park on Sunday afternoon. Following their successful defeats of Tuggeranong United and Woden Valley, the Blue Devils lead pack however, with postponements causing other teams to have played fewer matches the ladder, as Chelsea FC boss Jose Mourinho may say, is possibly ‘a false one’. There’s no doubting that Belconnen has all the assets required to go all the way in 2014 and they will be determined to see off the youngsters from the Institute. Newly re-named, and with a new crop of players, it will be interesting to see how the FFA COE will go. The team has just returned from a short tour of Italy where they got to know each other and learned the Tony Vidmar style of play but they couldn’t really have asked for a tougher initiation into the potential perils and pitfalls of the local National Premier League scene. One thing they can be sure of is the fact that the McKellar Park playing surface will be one of the best they encounter all season. By all reports the venue is looking better than ever and that should provide for a free-flowing entertaining spectacle.

Canberra Olympic v Monaro Panthers (O’Connor Enclosed)
Canberra Olympic plays their first home match of the season in Round 3 as they welcome Monaro Panthers to O’Connor Enclosed hoping to carry on with the form that saw them gather three points from the fixture against Cooma Tigers a fortnight ago. Olympic, it’s probably fair to say, wasn’t at its fluid best in downing the Tigers with Head Coach Frank Cachia still coming to terms with his talented roster and juggling his resources to find his best eleven. The form of off-season recruits Callum Smith and Michael Reeve would have pleased Cachia with the pair both netting against Cooma and generally enjoying a productive afternoon. The Panthers will need to be wary of the threat posed by these two, amongst others, as they attempt to redefine themselves following a 3-7 home loss to Canberra FC in their first run of 2014. The score-line may not have flattered Monaro in the end but the performance for a large part of the game was excellent. The tenacity and quality of Thomas James up front was a plus as was the hard running of Arok Thon and Deng Padiet. The lack of experience in the squad told towards the final whistle, when FC ran riot, but there are plenty of positives for Njegosh Popovich to build on starting with this fixture.

TABLE

LEADING SCORERS
3 Aaron EVANS (Canberra FC)
2 Dustin WELLS (Belconnen United), Alex OLORIEGBE (Canberra FC), Thomas JAMES (Monaro Panthers), Jon TOOLE (Tuggeranong United)
1 Taylor BEATON, David KEMP, Goran MUKEVSKI, Jason UGRINIC (Belconnen United), Daniel BENNETT, Domenic GIAMPAOLO (Canberra FC), Michael REEVE, Mark SHIELDS, Callum SMITH (Canberra Olympic), Robbie CATTANACH, Stephen DOMENICI (Cooma Tigers), Deng PADIET (Monaro Panthers), Andrew SLAVICH, Regan WALSH (Woden Valley), Own GOALS