Record Streaks: Week 11 A-League Preview | Thebigtip

There are only four matches this weekend. Newcastle v North Queensland has been pushed back to Wednesday, which means there’s no opportunity for me to talk about how great Tinkler is until next week’s preview. Until then, straight onto the matches for this week.

Adelaide v Wellington

Date: Friday 22nd October
Time: 8:30pm EST
Location: Hindmarsh Stadium

Betfair Odds
Adelaide: $1.86
Draw: $3.50
Wellington: $5

Changes

Adelaide
In: Marcos Flores (returns from injury), Mathew Leckie (returns from international duty), Mark Birighitti (gk, returns from international duty), Inseob Shin (promoted)
Out: Cameron Watson (contract expired), Joe Keenan (contract expired), Nick Munro (gk)Unavailable: Nigel Boogaard (ankle – 4 weeks), Lloyd Owusu (knee – indefinite)

Wellington
In: Nil
Out: Nil
Unavailable: Tony Lochhead (groin – 6 weeks)

Adelaide and my fantasy team are both back in business this week with the return of Flores and Leckie. They obviously went up to the Gold Coast for the point last week, which they’ve earnt the right to do after their start to the season. Now that they’ve equalled the record for the longest unbeaten streak in the history of the league, they try to break it at home against the team with the record for the longest time unbeaten at home. There’s a little bit of irony.

With the short-term contracts of Watson and Keenan both expiring, it looks like Adelaide are a little shallow at the back if they come across any more injuries. With Boogaard still out for at least another month, they’re down to their last four natural defenders. Of course with the way Adelaide are tracking at the moment, they could probably slot Leckie in at right back and not miss a beat, so maybe it won’t end up bothering them too much.

As usual for Wellington games, the midfield will be the crucial area. As a collective unit they need to step up, as they’ve been dropping off week by week, and there were even a few holes exposed last week when they were at home, which must be for the first time ever. The problem is, there aren’t too many areas they can expose Adelaide’s midfield, which is vastly superior to theirs in almost every single area.

For Wellington to get anything from the game, they have to actually play 90 minutes of football. Too often this season they’ve looked great in patches and then completely gone to sleep for a brief spell that’s ended up costing them points. If that happens again here, don’t put it past Adelaide to score goals the same way Cam White was hammering sixes the other night against India. Even though it seems like the sort of game that’s set up for the underdog to sneak an unlikely win, all the weight of evidence pointing towards Adelaide means that there’s no way you can’t tip them.

Tip: Adelaide (3-1)

Melbourne Heart v Gold Coast

Date: Saturday 23rd October
Time: 6:45pm EST
Location: AAMI Park

Betfair Odds
Heart: $2.56
Draw: $3.20
Gold Coast: $3.05

Changes

Heart
In: Eli Babalj, Kliment Taseski, Aziz Behich (all promoted)
Out: Nil
Unavailable: Kristian Sarkies (broken leg - indefinite)

Gold Coast
In: Tahj Minniecon (return from foot injury), Kristian Rees (promoted), Chris Broadfoot (promoted)
Out: Nil
Unavailable: Daniel Piorkowski (ankle injury – 4 weeks), Matt Osman (knee injury – indefinite).

My main interest in this game will be to see how the win in the Melbourne Derby affects the crowd size. This is the Heart’s first home game since that match, so it’s obviously the first chance to gauge how much the win means to their supporter base. They’ve drawn the short straw by coming up with Gold Coast as a crowd puller though.

Gold Coast won’t draw a big crowd at the very best of times, and now that they’ve decided to shed their style from last season in favour of something that wouldn’t look out of place in an Aurelio Vidmar playbook, they’re even less of a lure for fans. The only thing that’s left that’s appealing about the Gold Coast is Culina, and to a lesser extent Djite. Apart from that, no-one else has the ability to take a game over, or even show some sort of flair that’s not a complete fluke.

For the Heart, Aziz Behich is back from his suspension. Even though he deserves to come straight back into the starting XI, it’s tough to find a spot for him. The back four is settled for once and the midfield performed well against Wellington, which leaves only Zahra’s spot as a possible entrance if Terra is still battling with an injury as he was last week. All of a sudden there’s a little bit of depth developing at the Heart.

If the Heart don’t get their passing game going from the outset, this could be a very boring game. Gold Coast won’t push the tempo unless they have chances gifted to them, and their defence should be good enough to quell most Heart chances given they’ll most likely be sitting back. A draw seems a likely result.

Tip: Draw (0-0)

Brisbane v Melbourne Victory

Date: Saturday 23rd October
Time: 8:45pm EST
Location: Suncorp Stadium

Betfair Odds
Brisbane: $1.63
Draw: $3.05
Victory: $2.06

Changes

Brisbane
In: Matt Mundy, Rocky Visconte, Luke Brattan, James Meyer (all promoted)
Out: Nil
Unavailable: Henrique (broken arm – indefinite)

Victory
In: Surat Sukha (returns from injury), Petar Franjic, Diogo Ferreira, Marvin Angulo (all promoted)
Out: Nil
Unavailable: Archie Thompson (knee – indefinite), Matthew Kemp (knee – indefinite)

It seems like Brisbane are up and flying again after their good win against the Mariners in midweek. To be fair, it’s hard to lavish too much praise on the general performance given that Central Coast didn’t appear to know how to get out of their own half, but the two goals that were scored were both goals of the season so far.

It’s another case of a team coming to the end of their three games in a week, but this is slightly different given that Brisbane have been at home for the whole set. There won’t be as much strain on the legs or wear and tear on the bodies because of the comforts of home, meaning that any advantage Melbourne would have in theory is basically gone.

After Melbourne’s win against Sydney last week, it’s hard to assess whether they’re really ‘back’ or not. Yes, they did play well – but I’m willing to say that any team from the Victorian Premier League could have given Sydney a run with the way they played. In all the Melbourne-Sydney games I’ve watched, I don’t think I’ve ever seen any team as lazy, disinterested and flat out horrible as Sydney were on Saturday night.

The way Melbourne set up against Sydney will also lend itself well against Brisbane. With the way the Roar pass the ball around and get forward in numbers, it will open up space at the back for the Victory to hit on the counter – and when they hit teams on the counter, it’s good night. Add that to the way Brisbane were opened apart in the second half against the Victory in their previous meeting, and it seems to point towards a Victory win.

Tip: Victory (2-0)

Perth v Sydney

Date: Sunday 24th October
Time: 7:00pm EDT
Location: NIB Stadium

Betfair Odds
Perth: $2.10
Draw: $3.05
Sydney: $3.05

Changes

Perth
In: Robbie Fowler (returns from international travel), Ryan Pearson (promoted)
Out: Nil
Unavailable: Chris Coyne (on loan – 5 weeks)

Sydney
In: Kofi Danning, Terry Antonis, Rhyan Grant, Dimitri Petratos (all return from international duty)
Out: Nil
Unavailable: Nil

This is going to be the first time in A-League history where both teams play 90 minutes and neither come away with points. Both teams are that bad at the moment I’d say it’s actually a possibility.

A new coach for Perth brought about ... well, nothing really. Ferguson made the baffling decision to start Skorich ahead of Jelic against the Fury last week. I’m not exactly sure what planet he was on when that call was made, but there’s no possible way that he could have come up with that without the aid of something. I literally spent the first 20 minutes of that game trying to figure out why Jelic wasn’t starting and couldn’t come up with one valid reason.

They most likely won’t have the same problem this week with Fowler back from his holiday meaning he’ll come back into the starting XI barring a late training ground punch-up with Ferguson. How they’ll co-exist after the troubles they had last season will be a fascinating sub-plot to the game and the rest of the Glory season.

Sydney ... where to start. They’ve got a full squad to choose from for the first time this season with the return of their youth international players. In theory, that would give Lavicka a lot of flexibility in his team selection. In reality, mention the word flexible to Lavicka and you’ll probably get a blank stare.

“Flexible? What is flexible? Lavicka does not compute.”

To be honest, the idea of Lavicka talking in the third person would make Sydney at least 200% more entertaining. The press conference would become must-see events, the heat would go off the players because everyone would focus on the coach, and it would just be a sight to see.

As for the match itself, about the only thing that you can lean on is Perth’s home ground advantage. Even taking into account the fact they’ve lost their last two at the ground, it’s still a tough place for travelling teams to go and get points from. Add that to the return of Fowler, who bamboozled Sydney last season, and I guess the logical thing to do would be to tip Perth.

Tip: Perth (3-2)

That’s that for another weekend of matches. Until next time, you can follow me on Twitter (rickm18), you can search iTunes for the podcast I’m involved in (RickJames SportsCast) and leave your thoughts on the outcomes of the weekend down below.

Enjoy the weekend of matches.