Yellow Fever: Week 2 A-League Preview | Thebigtip

To kick off the season last week, I went 2/5 in my tipping, with Friday night my only successes, while 3/5 of my value bets came up the goods. Not too bad, although picking out that there’d be one match in the round with a lot of goals (Gold Coast-Brisbane), when that ended up with none compared to the goalfests at Perth and Sydney came back to bite me a little bit.

A quick point for anyone who read my wrap-up of Week 1 and wondered where the surprise I promised was – the dates have been changed so its been moved to next week.

You’ll notice that there are squads in the preview this week (sourced from the official A-League site as of Thursday afternoon, so there’s the potential for changes after I write this), which makes a lot more reading, so straight onto the first match tomorrow night.

Wellington v Central Coast

Date: Friday 13th August
Time: 5:30pm EST
Location: Westpac Stadium

Centrebet Odds
Wellington: $2.25
Draw: $3.25
Gold Coast: $3.00

Squads

Wellington: 1. Mark Paston (gk), 2. Manny Muscat, 3. Tony Lochhead, 6. Tim Brown, 7. Leo Bertos, 8. Paul Ifill, 9. Chris Greenacre, 10. Oscar Roberto Cornejo, 11. Daniel, 13. Troy Hearfield, 14. Mirjan Pavlovic, 17. Vince Lia, 18. Ben Sigmund, 20. Reece Crowther (gk), 21. Marco Rojas, 22. Andrew Durante (c), 23. Dylan Macallister
*two to be omitted*

Unavailable: 5. Diego WALSH (knee – 4 weeks), 15. Jade NORTH (international duty)

Gold Coast: 1.Glen Moss (gk), 2.Steve Pantelidis, 3.Michael Thwaite, 5.Robson, 6.Dino Djulbic, 7.Zenon Caravella, 8.Anderson, 9.Shane Smeltz, 10.Jason Culina (c), 13.Bas Van Den Brink, 14.Joel Porter, 15.Tahj Minniecon, 16.Kristian Rees, 18.James Brown, 20.Scott Higgins (gk), 21.Golgol Mebrahtu, 22.Adama Traore, 24.John Curtis
*three to be omitted*
In: 8.ANDERSON, 18.James BROWN, 24.John CURTIS
Out: Nil
Unavailable: Daniel PIORKOWSKI (ankle injury – 4 weeks), Matt OSMAN (knee injury – indefinite)

Overview

Finally the Phoenix get to kick off their season after being forced to wait a week longer than the rest of the competition. You would assume that Ricki Herbert and the rest of the coaching staff paid close attention to Gold Coast’s performance last Sunday – in particular the way they were completely dismantled in midfield.

As usual, there’ll be a lot of focus on Smeltz returning to the team that gave him the platform to become one of the best strikers in the league. However, I think he might have touched the ball about five times in total in the three meetings last season, so after the way he came across last week, it’ll be interesting to watch his body language and how he reacts to the pressure. I can’t see him scoring or having any influence on the match.

For Wellington, their new signing Jade North will have to wait another week to make his Phoenix debut, with international commitments ruling him unavailable for the season opener. That will mean Sigmund and Durante will be the pairing in the centre of defence, with Lochhead and Muscat on either side.

Given the massive hype around the Phoenix pre-season, you’d think they would want to come out and make a statement right from the top. Combine that with Gold Coast’s poor performance last week, their struggles last season against the Phoenix (only one point from a possible nine) and the typically New Zealand weather that’s forecast, I can’t see any possible way that Wellington don’t walk out of this with the three points at the conclusion.

Tip: Wellington (2-0)
Value Bet: Wellington to keep a clean sheet: $2.70

Newcastle v Melbourne Heart

Date: Friday 13th August
Time: 8:00pm EST
Location: EnergyAustralia Stadium

Centrebet Odds
Newcastle: $2.30
Draw: $3.25
Melbourne: $2.90

Squads
Newcastle: 1. Ben Kennedy (gk), 3. Adam D’apuzzo, 4. Nikolai Topor-Stanley, 5. Ljubo Milicevic 6. Ben Kantarovski, 7. Kasey Wehrman, 8. Michael Bridges (c), 10. Ruben Zadkovich, 11. Tarek Elrich, 12. Jobe Wheelhouse, 13. Sash Petrovski, 14. Labinot Haliti, 16. Jeremy Brockie, 17. Marcello Fiorentini, 18. Marko Jesic, 19. Ali Abass, 30. Paul Henderson
*two to be omitted*
In: Nil
Out: 21.Brodie MOOY (not selected), 22. Kaz PATAFTA (not selected), 2. Taylor REGAN (not selected)
Unavailable: 20. Neil YOUNG (illness - indefinite), 15. Sean ROONEY (calf – 4/6 weeks)

Melbourne: 1. Clint Bolton (gk), 2. Michael Marrone, 3. Brendan Hamill, 4. Simon Colosimo (c), 5. Michael Beauchamp, 6. Matthew Thompson, 7. Rutger Worm, 9. Gerald Sibon, 10. Wayne Srhoj, 11. Alex Terra, 12. Peter Zois (gk) 17. Jason Hoffman, 19. Eli Babalj, 20. Josip Skoko, 21. Kliment Taseski, 22. Nick Kalmar, 23. Dean Heffernan, 24. Aziz Behich
*three to be omitted*
In: 10. Wayne SRHOJ, 17. Jason HOFFMAN (promoted), 21. Kliment TASESKI (promoted)
Out: Nil
Unavailable: 15.John ALOISI (Hamstring – 3 weeks), 8.Kristian SARKIES (Leg – Indefinite)

Overview

From their first home game to their first away game, the second match of the Friday night double header will see the Heart travel up to Newcastle to take on the Jets. Neither side were impressive last week for different reasons, so it’ll be interesting to see how they respond.

There haven’t been major changes to either of the squads, with good reason too. So many times managers in leagues chop and change too often, so in a league where results fluctuate more than most it’s good to see faith being shown in the players.

The main sub-plot I’m most interested in watching is how former Newcastle captain Matt Thompson is received by the crowd as he makes his first visit back to the place that he called home for 121 A-League matches. Given the way he arguably carried them on his back during the finals series, I can’t see anything less than a healthy reception once the initial reaction subsides. After all, you can’t greet a returning player with 100% positivity can you? I didn’t think it was allowed.

On the Newcastle side of things, it will be interesting to see who gets the starting nod out of Haliti and Jesic. As I mentioned in my wrap-up on Monday, Bridges was right on the back of Jesic last Friday night in Adelaide, and a possible fall-out (if it was negative reaction to Jesic) could be that Haliti takes his starting spot.

I think this match will bring the first goal for the Heart. I can’t see them winning though, so I’ll be tipping the score draw.

Tip: Draw (1-1)
Value Bet: First goal scorer to be Matt Thompson: $13

North Queensland v Sydney

Date: Saturday 14th August
Time: 5:15pm EST
Location: Dairy Farmers Stadium

Centrebet Odds
North Queensland: $3.20
Draw: $3.30
Sydney: $2.15

Squads

North Queensland: 1. Justin Pasfield (gk), 2.Jack Hingert, 3.Brad McDonald, 4. Eric Akoto, 5. Mark Hughes, 7. Gareth Edds (c), 8. Adam Casey, 10. Dyron Daal, 11. David Williams, 12. Panagiotis Nikas, 14. Chris Grossman, 15. Chris Payne, 16. Simon Storey, 17. Osama Malik, 18. Brett Studman, 19. Isaka Cernak, 20. Matthew Ham (gk), 21. Jason Spagnuolo
*five to be omitted*
In: 3.Brad McDonald (new signing), 9.Eugene Sepuya (transfer clearance), 2.Jack Hingert (promoted), 7.Ufuk Talay (returns from calf injury)
Out: Nil
Unavailable: 13.Andre Kilian (3 weeks - foot)

Sydney: 1. Liam Reddy (gk), 2. Sebastian Ryall, 3. Stephan Keller, 5. Hayden Foxe, 7. Brendan Gan, 8. Stuart Musialik, 10. Nick Carle, 11. Kofi Danning, 12. Shannon Cole, 13. Antony Golec, 14. Alex Brosque, 15. Terry Mcflynn (c), 20. Ivan Necevski (gk), 21. Scott Jamieson, 22. Sung-Hwan Byun, 23. Rhyan Grant
*one to be omitted*
In: 7.Brendan GAN
Out: 9.Mark Bridge (Hamstring – 1 week)
Unavailable: Nil

Overview

Given I didn’t get to watch North Queensland play with any sort of normality last week, it’ll be hard for me to talk about them with any accuracy. However, I am looking forward to the possible debut of Eugene Sepuya, who has possibly the greatest personal player website of all time. If anyone’s interested in having a look at it, plug his name into Google and it should be one of the first few results.

From a Sydney point of view, they’ll be looking to tighten their defence after the madness that was the game against the Victory last week. After watching the game for a second time, Sydney’s performance reminded me a lot of their season opener last year (coincidentally against North Queensland), where they jumped out to a lead and then switched off for a brief period, allowing their opposition back into it.

The loss of Bridge is an interesting one, as to an extent it exposes their lack of forward options. I mentioned this in my season preview, so the starting replacement in Danning (I assume) will have a big chance to press his claims for a more permanent position if the hamstring issues become a reoccurring problem for Bridge.

I’m disappointed I won’t get to see this game live (or for that matter not for 24+ hours afterwards) as there could be a fair few goals in the game. Of course the last time I said that about a game it ended 0-0, but that doesn’t matter for here. Got it? Good.

Tough to tip a winner, but I’ll go with Sydney just.

Tip: Sydney (2-1)
Value Bet: Over 2.5 goals: $1.95