Kurz backs Adelaide to master elements ahead of Wellington challenge

Marco Kurz is backing Adelaide United to master the elements when they face Wellington Phoenix on Saturday night.

Wind and rain makes the upcoming journey across the ditch a challenge for any Hyundai A-League side embarking to the New Zealand capital.

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And the 49-year-old revealed this weekend’s upcoming trip is the most challenging away-day fixture he’s encountered in his footballing career.

“Yes, for league games, for sure [it is the most challenging],” he said.

“But we had the experience last season, playing twice in Wellington and I think it’s not a problem for me to play there.

“It’s always good, I like to play when the temperature is not too hot and we had luck last year with the wind because it was not windy.

“But I saw their game against Western Sydney Wanderers and it was very windy but then it’s up to both teams to manage the wind and the rain.”

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The chance of high wind and rain at Westpac Stadium on Saturday is not the only challenge that awaits the high-flying visitors.

Despite sitting in seventh on the Hyundai A-League table ahead of rebel Female Football Round, Mark Rudan’s side pose an unpredictable threat to the FFA Cup 2018 Champions.

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“They play with a back-five line, but they can change to a back-four line as in the last game.

“They changed after seventy minutes to a 4-2-3-1 and they’ve a lot of speed in the offensive line.

“They’ve a new goalkeeper, new players in the midfield and defence and the season is young.

“The teams in the A-League are very close together and you have to perform in each game to collect points and we travel to Wellington wanting to win.

“It’s one of their strengths (the counter-attack) because the speed is very good,” he said.

“I don’t know which players will start but they’ve (Sarpreet) Singh, they’ve (Roy) Krishna, they’ve (David) Williams, they’ve (Nathan) Burns so they’ve a lot of alternatives.

“They’ve a good play maker with (Mitch) Nichols and it’s a strong team.”

Marco Kurz