Newcastle Jets vs Sydney Prediction: Badolato to land another anytime winner

After suffering a 3-2 defeat in the F3 derby on the opening weekend of the Australian A-League Men’s season, Newcastle Jets got off the mark in style last week. The Jets thrashed Melbourne Victory 5-2 at McDonald Jones Stadium, which is the venue for Saturday’s game against Sydney FC (06:00 GMT, TNT Sports 2), who are also on three points after two matches.

Below are my Newcastle Jets vs Sydney predictions, supported by all the latest team news and match odds.

Team News

Eli Adams, Alex Nassiep, Clayton Taylor, Lucas Scicluna (all unspecified), Kota Mizinuma (knock) and Noah James (knee) are all out injured for Newcastle Jets.

Mark Natti hasn't made either matchday squad in the ALM this season, but the 22-year-old defender, who played the duration of the Australia Cup final earlier this month, is in the long list for Saturday's game.

Football Odds

Ben Garuccio (quad) and Mathias Macallister (calf) miss out again for Sydney, but Corey Hollman and Joe Lacey have both returned from injury.

Newcastle Jets vs Sydney Odds

Newcastle Jets are slight underdogs on Saturday, with odds of 6/4 to win implying a 40% chance of success, while Sydney are marginal favourites at 11/8 (42.1%), with the draw priced at 13/5.

Total Goals - Over 4.5 @ 9/4

The Jets have been involved in a couple of high-scoring ALM games already this season, with an opening weekend 3-2 defeat at Central Coast Mariners followed by a 5-2 hammering of Victory last weekend.

Mark Milligan’s side were also in the goals during their victorious Australia Cup campaign, netting 15 times across four matches.

The same can’t be said for Sydney, who have seen all five of their matches across the cup and league finished with three or fewer goals.

Today's Football Fixtures

However, they were a free-scoring side in 2024/25, with only Western Sydney Wanderers (58) and Western United (55) netting more times in the ALM than the Sky Blues (53).

The Jets and Sydney played out a couple of entertaining games last season, exchanging four goals in a 2-2 draw at McDonald Jones Stadium in January before the Sky Blues triumphed 3-2 at Allianz Stadium in April.

Both teams have plenty of goals in them, so 9/4 for over 4.5 on Saturday is jumping out at me.

Anytime Goalscorer - Alex Badolato (NEW) @ 9/5

I don’t think Jets midfielder Alex Badolato will score in every single ALM game this season, but at current prices, I think he’s worth backing in the anytime market for a little longer.

I backed the 20-year-old at 3/1 to strike anytime against his former club Melbourne Victory last weekend, and he took just 20 minutes to score, and added two more goals to bring up the first hat-trick of the new ALM season.

Having opened the scoring for the Jets in the F3 derby on October 19, Badolato tops the Golden Boot charts with four goals, one ahead of Melbourne City’s Max Caputo, heading into gameweek three.

The former Western Sydney Wanderers man would love nothing more than to add the Sky Blues to his list of victims on Saturday, and having watched his terrific ball striking in the first couple of weeks, I’m happy to back him to find the net in a third consecutive match.

Offers

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