Home Fortresses: Week 4 A-League Preview | Thebigtip

Only one home team lost last week. will it be another round in the home team's favour?
It was a great week of football...helped significantly with the fact I managed to tip 4 from 5, making it my best round so far and a marked improvement on my 1 from 5 the previous round.
Anyway, enough of my past tipping results, and onto this week and the Friday night match:

Brisbane v Wellington

Date:         Friday 27th August
Time:         8pm EST
Location:     Suncorp Stadium

Betfair Odds

Brisbane:     $2.24
Draw:         $3.35
Wellington:     $3.15

The Friday night matches have been entertaining for the last couple of weeks, and considering this is my match of the round going in, I can’t see it changing for another week at least.

The obvious sub-plot to this game is how Wellington will cope with their first away game of the season, having to fly all the way up to Brisbane on a short turnaround after only the five day break. The last time they played at Suncorp it was a disaster – Muscat decided it would be a good idea to throw elbows around and the remaining defenders decided it would be a good idea to concede four fairly soft goals. Probably not the best one-two punch you want when you’re trying to win games on the road.

However, as I mentioned with Perth in the Week 2 preview, the first away trip of the season can be an inviting peek into the players psyche, and how they’ve prepared themselves mentally for the task. Because it seems like Paston is going to be fit for tomorrow, they’ll have the best possible preparation in that there will most likely be no changes to the starting XI from the side that beat Central Coast 2-0. Unfortunately for the Phoenix though, they’re running into a red-hot Brisbane side that are playing some excellent football.

Just two matches ago, no-one was predicting too much from the Roar from the season (yours truly included). While I doubt they can keep up this style of football for the entire 30-round season with their young squad , the weeks that they can play it will lead to massive headaches for the opposition coaching staff. That’s practically the exact opposite of what I predicted, but that’s the A-League for you.

I assume Murdocca will come straight into the starting XI for Franjic, and then a reshuffle will ensue. I forgot to mention it in my wrap-up on Monday, but Franjic getting injured whilst basically diving is extremely high on the unintentional comedy scale. Apart from that change, Brisbane would be looking towards Barbarouses to have more of an effect against his old side. He’s been good so far, but he’s suffered from a lack of composure when in front of goal – look at the simple chance he fluffed to put Brisbane two-up against Sydney as a prime example of that.

As for the result of the match, it’s so, so hard to pick a winner. Thankfully, I can remind myself that I’m previewing a soccer game, which means I have the easy out of picking a draw.

Tip: Draw (1-1)


North Queensland v Adelaide

Date:         Saturday 28th August
Time:         5:15pm EST
Location:     Dairy Farmers Stadium

Betfair Odds

North Queensland:     $2.38
Draw:             $3.35
Adelaide:         $2.90

Well, well – what an intriguing match this is. If someone had said that to me a month ago, I probably would have told them to quit the gags and contact Gudinski about making a documentary about their 'recreational' habits.

Before last week, the previous time Adelaide had scored three goals in a match was Round 4 last season – coincidentally also against the Fury, but at Hindmarsh as opposed to Dairy Farmers.

Looking at their squad, the return of Van Dijk should mean a step further towards the attacking philosophy that’s been promised and shown last week. I wonder though; will the return of Sergio mean that they have to completely alter their style?

The main reason for Adelaide looking so dangerous last week was that they were getting in behind the Heart defence as they pleased, and with a big target man up front who’s not the quickest, they might have to change their style.

We’ll have to wait and see how it pans out, although given Google says 27 degrees is forecast, it could turn out to be a good thing.

As for the Fury, good news with Akoto’s suspension being reduced from two games down to just the one. Obviously it’s not the ideal result, but at least it means he’ll be available to return to the scene of the crime when the Fury play the Heart at AAMI Park on the 4th of September.

Looking at the ins for the Fury, I assume McDonald would be the replacement? This is the point where I have to confess that I know absolutely nothing about him, although it doesn’t help when the man doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page. Even I could have a Wiki page with minimal effort – this guy is playing professional football and doesn’t have one.

Hopefully the fans in Townsville turn out to this one, because the Fury definitely deserve a bigger crowd. So far I haven’t heard of any reports that their website has been hacked, so that’s a good start. Taking the weather into account, I think Adelaide might fade late – especially after playing their two home games in about 0.3 degree weather. The Fury to get the win.

Tip: North Queensland (2-0)