It’s hard to believe that the last time these two sides met at Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane notched their first ever home win against Adelaide.
Date: Friday, October 28 2011
Kick-off: 8.00pm AEDT, 7.00pm local
Venue: Suncorp Stadium
Head-to-head
Played 19: Wins: Brisbane 5, Adelaide 8, Draws: 6
Previous encounter
Brisbane 1, Adelaide 0, 2 January 2011
History:
While the overall statistics are in Adelaide’s favour, the Reds could not register a win over Brisbane in their three meetings last season. To be fair, they’re not alone in that. Still, matches between United and the Roar are generally thrilling, open affairs and with these two sides heavily favoured to be amongst the title contenders this season, there’s no reason why this one shouldn’t follow suit.
Form:
Past five matches:
Brisbane: WWW
Adelaide: LWL
Summary of form:
Yet to concede a single goal three weeks into the new campaign, the Roar have been standing firm in the face of increased tactical scrutiny from opposition clubs. While the rest of the A-League has upped the pressure, Brisbane have simply continued to play their football and waited for the perfect moment to strike before putting their chances away.
Adelaide, on the other hand, have been erratic. Injuries have played their part, but the Reds went backwards last week as they threw away a 1-0 half-time lead to fall to Sydney at home – cancelling out any momentum they had gained from toppling Victory the week before.
Match Committee:
Brisbane are, again, without any major injury headaches. The same cannot be said for Adelaide, who are undergoing somewhat of a crisis with Evgeniy Levchenko (calf), Dario Vidosic (corked thigh), Zenon Caravella (Achilles), Bruce Djite (adductor), Jon McKain (knee), and Milan Susak (groin) all with concerns hanging over their availability.
Djite and Nigel Boogard (ankle) are definitely out, but most startling of all was the revelation this week that Susak and McKain have only played together in defence five times at training. That puts their inconsistent form in some sort of perspective.
Danger men:
Besart Berisha – After Jean Carlos Solorzano left the Roar for seemingly greener pastures at Melbourne Victory, coach Ange Postecoglou entered the market for a striker capable of finishing off the opportunites that are bound to be generated by his side’s delightful flowing football.
In Albanian international Berisha, he has found the natural goal poacher he needed. The former Armenia Bielefeld and Burnley attacker looks at home in the penalty box and wasted no time in opening his A-League account with two goals in his first three games.
Sergio van Dijk – With Adelaide’s midfield misfiring in last week’s loss to the Sky Blues, van Dijk was starved of action. All this classy Dutch marksman needs is for his teammates behind him to string a few more passes together and he’s a near certainty to finish them off – as he did when he scored the winner against Melbourne Victory a fortnight ago.
This week he faces his former club, and what better way to spark a Reds revival than for van Dijk to open the scoring against the competition benchmarks?
At the end of the day…
It’s hard to believe that the last time these two sides met at Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane notched their first ever home win against Adelaide. Gone are the days when teams actually looked forward to away trips to take on the Roar.
The men in orange were once notorious for being seemingly unable to win on their own turf. Not anymore. Suncorp is now an unforgiving place to visit and teams will have to be at their absolute best if they are any chance of taking home three points.
The reality is that Adelaide are nowhere near their best. With injuries rearing their ugly head, coach Rini Coolen has been unable to maintain any form of consistency in player selection and as a result, his system has had to change from week to week.
That’s why we’ve seen one great performance and two shoddy ones from the Reds so far. With their best team on the paddock, fit and firing, they would be a chance against Brisbane. But with the Roar playing the way they are and United’s spasmodic form, expect the hosts to continue on their merry way.
