While Melbourne has the luxury of a trial match against Adelaide United today (Tuesday) and the next seven days to prepare in familiar surroundings, Gamba must play three J-League games in six days before flying the eight hours to Melbourne this Sunday.

Last Sunday, Osaka beat Tokyo Verdy 2-1 at home. This will be followed up tomorrow night (Wed) when they travel to the island of Kyushu to play Oita followed by Saturday’s clash with Shimuzu S-Pulse in Osaka.

Clearly the J-League side will arrive in the Victorian capital fatigued even if Akira Nishino does rotate his squad for this bottleneck of J-League games.

What's more, if Melbourne turns on more hot weather this may also trouble Gamba which is coming from a winter environment.

These factors may influence Victory coach Ernie Merrick’s game plan with the hope fatigue sets in late in the clash next Wednesday night at Telstra Dome.

That said, his plans have been interrupted by the injury to Socceroo Archie Thompson. This may bring Leandro Love into the attack to partner Danny Allsopp or, as it’s been suggested, Nick Ward may play a more advanced role.

Either way, Merrick is desperate to get his club’s ACL campaign back on track after their 3-1 loss to group surprise packets Chonburi FC of Thailand on match day two.

Merrick has urged his team to win at all costs. “It’s a vital game for us. There’s no beating around the bush, we need to take three points from it,” Merrick told au.fourfourtwo.com.

“With one team going through in the group, you really need to go for wins all the time, especially at home. That’s certainly what we aim to do both here and away to Gamba Osaka [two weeks later].

“The next two games are vital. Gamba were probably surprised by Chonburi’s tenacity. Chonburi are the dark horses but Gamba haven’t yet hit their straps. They played well in the Pan Pacific tournament beating Houston 6-1 in the final.”

The J-League side has made a modest start to the J-League season with a 1/1/1 win/loss/draw ratio. They currently sit in 11th spot in the 18 team J-League.

Their ACL form has been equally indifferent. They almost lost their opening tie to Chonburi before a last minute goal spared their blushes in a 1-1 draw. They recovered somewhat to defeat Chunnam Dragons 4-3 in a scorcher of a match in South Korea.

With Chonburi on top of the group, Gamba second and Victory third, this match at the Telstra Dome looms as pivotal. A point on the road will be like gold dust for Japanese side ahead of their home tie with Merrick’s men.

“They’re a big team, they want success and they just bought seven new players,” added Merrick. “

“They’ve got three very good Brazilians including Bare who’s the second top goalscorer in the J-League. They’ve got seven internationals in their team so I think they’re going to be the team to beat.

“I’m not saying it’s coming down to us two teams but the next two games between us and Osaka are going to be the key to our ACL hopes.”