As they did last week, two young Westfield W-League midfielders will be coming head to head when Melbourne City takes on Melbourne Victory this Sunday.
21-year-old Sarah Cain is currently in her first W-League season and has been impressive in her first few games for City, while despite being a couple of years younger, Kyra Cooney-Cross already has a few seasons of experience at the level under her belt.
It wasn’t the result that City were last Sunday as Victory piled on some late goals to come away with a convincing win.
City will be looking to put in a much improved performance and have the unique opportunity to face the same opponent just a week later.
While they may be the youngest of their respective teams’ midfields, Cain and Cooney-Cross will both be looking to have a big impact as they try to help their team come away with three points.
Cain has started all three of City’s fixtures and has played a total of 242 minutes while Cooney-Cross has played every minute of Victory’s two matches so far this season.
The young City midfielder has displayed a high work-rate early this season, and has had no problem getting back to help her defence having made five clearances and five interceptions.
Cooney-Cross has played a total of 58 less minutes than Cain but has made one clearance and three interceptions while also being successful with all four of her attempted tackles. Cain has won the ball six times from nine attempted tackles.
In the early stages of the season Cain is averaging 33.8 passes per 90 minutes and completing them at a success rate of 65.9% compared to Cooney-Cross who is only making 25 passes per 90 minutes but boasting a higher success rate of 72%.
Cain has shot threes times this season but is yet to get an attempt on target while Cooney-Cross has had three attempts on target and did score against City last week.
