Rock Bottom: Week 14 A-League Preview | Thebigtip

A quick thought on the Fury-Heart midweek game from Wednesday night – will the Fury ever have any sort of luck whatsoever? At the moment it seems like everything around them turns sour. Against the Heart they dominated the first half, and then proceeded to go right out to be on the end of two extremely questionable calls that effectively killed the match. Just can’t catch a break.

Gold Coast v Sydney

Date: Friday 12th November

Time: 8:30pm EDT

Location: Skilled Park

Betfair Odds

Gold Coast: $2.24

Draw: $3.40

Sydney: $3.60

Changes

Gold Coast

In: Tahj Minniecon, James Brown (Both return from illness), Chris Broadfoot (promoted).

Out: Nil

Unavailable: Daniel Piorkowski (ankle injury – indefinite), Matt Osman (knee injury – indefinite).

Sydney

In: Nil

Out: Nicky Carle (Foot – 3 Weeks), Mark Bridge (Hamstring – 1 Week)

Unavailable: Nicky Carle (Foot – 3 Weeks)

The last time these two met Sydney were in the middle of their “we’re almost there, but not really” phase of form. It was in Week 8 – in Sydney’s previous game they had run Wellington close for no result. In this meeting they dominated the Gold Coast for only a single point as it ended at 1-1.

Not too much squad news to talk about apart from the continued absence of Bruce Djite. I would mention that he’s not listed as unavailable, but when you look at how Sydney have submitted their squad it’s hard to take too much from it. At some point I wouldn’t mind seeing the Porter-Djite combination in full flight; could be sometime in the next decade before it’s on the pitch though.

Gold Coast just keeps rolling on and on. They’ve got the best defence in the league and even though they were the beneficiaries of a lucky (or extremely skilful, whichever way you want to look at it) own goal against the Victory, they’re the sorts of breaks that an in-form team gets. Against a Sydney team that’s still struggling to score goals, another clean sheet is definitely on the cards on the caveat that they can deal with Bruno.

Bruno (he doesn’t have a last name – he’s like Cher) has been a breath of fresh air to Sydney. It’s that extra dimension he brings to the attack that I would claim has been the catalyst to Sydney remembering how to actually win games. The Gold Coast haven’t had to deal with a striker with the skill set that Bruno provides so there’s the potential for a few long balls early on catching the Gold Coast defence on their heels before they adapt.

With a couple of free bets staring at me in the face begging to be used, the unders for the goals seems like almost a sure bet. There surely can’t be too many goalscoring opportunities involved in the game, so my tip is a scoreless draw to kick off the weekend.

Tip: Draw (0-0)

Wellington v Central Coast

Date: Saturday 13th November

Time: 5:30pm EDT

Location: Westpac Stadium

Betfair Odds

Wellington: $2.60

Draw: $3.25

Central Coast: $3.00

Changes

Wellington

In: Nick Ward, Troy Hearfield, Mirjan Pavlovic (all promoted)

Out: Nil

Unavailable: Tony Lochhead (groin – 5 weeks), Oscar Robert Cornejo (knee – 5 weeks)

Central Coast

In: Trent Sainsbury (promoted)

Out: John Hutchinson (international duty)

Unavailable: John Hutchinson (international duty), Brad Porter (knee – 12 weeks), Jess Vanstrattan (knee – season)

Just when you think you have some sort of read on Wellington, they go out, lose at home . . . and then follow it with a win at Perth. This league drives me nuts sometimes.

Again, no major squad news to talk about. Going by a quick Google search, it seems like Sainsbury is a defender. That makes him replacing Hutchinson a little bit out of the ordinary, because it’s not like their defensive stocks need any bolstering. They do need to score a goal at some point, because going out for a scoreless draw at the Cake Tin is just begging for failure.

It’s been almost three years since Central Coast scored against Wellington. I am not making that up – it is true. The last goal came in January ’08 at Bluetongue (coincidentally also the last time they defeated the Phoenix). To find their last goal at the Cake Tin you have to go back even further to October ’07 – that’s why going out with such a defensive mindset isn’t going to work.

I wonder what the mindset of the Phoenix players is like after the past week – must have felt like they were in some sort of bizarro world. After Herbert explains to them that they did in fact win away from home, it has to give them a massive boost to re-start their home advantage. In a situation like this, Wellington’s home form can go one of two ways – straight back to how it was (i.e. never losing), or slumping to a streak of poor performances and losses.

Simply based on the defensive mindset the Mariners seem to be employing based on their squad, I can’t see them scoring. Wellington don’t go scoreless at the Cake Tin, so they will get their second win in a row.

Tip: Wellington (1-0)