Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers fighting cultural battle off the field The Cove during Sydney FC's match with Wellington Phoenix at Allianz Stadium. TALK about a tale of two cities, even if officially they're confined into one Greater Sydney region. As the hours tick down to the second Sydney derby of the A-League season, there's a far bigger battle being fought to be the A-League poster boys in Sydney. The advent of a club in Western Sydney hasn't just wrought a city rivalry and bolstered attendances, it has crystallised for Sydney FC what they are about. For the Sky Blues, Bling FC has become Aspirational Athletic. The club believes it can represent the city to the world, and unashamedly will court the upwardly mobile ranks of Sydney's citizens. Its focus is on a sweep of suburbs from the northern beaches via the inner west to Sutherland. Among them are some of the most affluent suburbs in Australia. Ambitiously, the club believes it can double the current (and record) membership to 20,000 by 2016. There is even talk of breaking that by the season after next. As a strategy it is either undeniably risky, for it is entirely reliant on Sydney FC being successful either on the pitch, or in luring marquee players with the box office appeal of Alessandro Del Piero. On the pitch, the Sky Blues have to find the sort of winning yet also highly aesthetic football that we have seen from Brisbane, Melbourne Victory and the Mariners in the past. Yet Sydney can point to being the highest-rating A-League team on pay-TV, and to attendances that in three seasons have almost doubled. Much of that is down to Del Piero, but the point is that the potential is there. It's all a total contrast with the unashamedly blue-collar work ethic across town, where the Wanderers were formed out of town meetings which emphasised how much the new club needed to reflect its region. Its sponsors are closely identified with Western Sydney, its playing group is predominantly locally raised, and even its stadium seems to offer a rawer kind of match experience. One of the most admirable aspects of the way the club has been built as been the roots it has put down into the community, and the way it has become a key component of the latter. No doubt the success of its first year has been a factor in the thousands who pour into Pirtek Stadium each week, but you get the sense that a substantial proportion are now "Wanderers family" whatever happens to the team's fortunes. For the Wanderers, the issue is where they can find growth. Parramatta Stadium is old and full, so big games that are held there will mean large amounts of revenue forgone. Neither club will claim vindication for their blueprints tonight. But the division between them just points up further this enthralling battle to be kings of Sydney.