A-League: what to look out for in round five

How the Wanderers react to being back on terra firma

Western Sydney Wanderers may be the new champions of Asia but they are pointless at home and propping up the A-League table. They have, of course, played two games fewer than most of their A-League rivals due to their recent Boy’s Own Adventures, but in their two A-League games to date (losses to Victory and Sydney by an aggregate score of 7-3) they played as if their minds were elsewhere. It shouldn’t be hard to guess where that was. But now, with the ACL trophy safely in their keeping, and the sand and saliva washed away by the nectar-sweet tears of Al-Hilal officials, they must somehow refocus their attention on domestic matters. Their first point of order will be to bring their ACL defence to the A-League. Luck plays a part in any clean sheet, but in the four matches comprising the ACL home-and-away semi-final and final the Wanderers didn’t concede a goal and, for that, Nikolai Topor-Stanley, Shannon Cole, Brendan Hamill, Daniel Mullen, Antony Golec and a born-again Ante Covic must get particular credit. It’s tough on the Wanderers that they’ve flown in from Riyadh only to have to fly out again to Wellington, but getting their minds and bodies on the job against a potentially dangerous Phoenix side will be even tougher. But at least now the distraction of the ACL is gone and with Matthew Spiranovic, Tomi Juric and Nikita Rukavytsya all fit to play, the Wanderers have every chance of getting their A-League campaign off the ground.

How will Adelaide beat the press?

Adelaide United go into Friday night’s clash with co-ladder leaders Sydney FC knowing they’ll need to find a way to prosper despite some serious pressing by the Sky Blues. When the two unbeaten teams played a fortnight ago in the FFA Cup quarter-finals, Sydney turned the match in their favour when, behind 1-0, they roused themselves from their porch after deciding it would make more sense to repel Adelaide at the front gate instead. This effort to make Adelaide earn their progress to the halfway line, let alone beyond that, changed the momentum of the match and saw Sydney get back to 1-1 and look the more likely victor. But the sending off of Sydney defender Nikola Petkovic changed the momentum again and it was Adelaide who won out, an extra-time double from Bruce Djite doing the business. Graham Arnold’s Sydney, who were chagrined by the sending-off and the loss (and who may carry some score-settling into this match because of it) will surely attempt to squeeze Adelaide into error again, so it will be interesting to see how Josep Gombau and team counter this. They are better than most at triangulating themselves out of a jam, a pickle, and even a pickle with jam, but they may need to drop an extra defender back or look for diagonal crosses to the flanks to get in behind Sydney and punish them for their forwardness. All tactical fun and games, and between that and the excellent form of both sets of players (who, this week, includes Cassio for Adelaide and Shane Smeltz for Sydney), Friday night’s game is the round’s clear highlight. Home ground advantage might just be enough to get United over the line.

Will City be better off without Villa?

It seems ludicrous to suggest that any team would be better off without one of the world’s best players, but perhaps the exit of David Villa will initiate a change of fortune at City. Given the short length of Villa’s initial tenure (10 games), a time period later reduced to a likely four matches, City were never going to build their season around him and, given that, it was always going to be hard for him to be anything but a distraction, on and off the pitch. Playing as a winger who was not inclined to track back all that far, Villa did at least score two goals but those strikes just rescued points, rather than delivered wins. So what have City gained? They are now winless in 10 matches if you include the last six games from last season. How much patience will the City Football Group have if the drought continues, as it will unless the team find a way to more effectively break down a set defence. It won’t help City that their opponents this week are the winless – pointless, in fact – reigning champions who will be desperate to get off the mark. While success may have drained the Oranje of some of its juice Brisbane have too many good players – including Matt McKay, back from suspension – to keep languishing like this.

The comforts of home

Looking at the form guide Melbourne Victory – who this week welcome back Besart Berisha, Daniel Georgievski and Adrian Leijer – should have little difficulty in beating Newcastle Jets. The two teams occupy opposing ends of the table and Kevin Muscat’s team have been impressive and slickly efficient all season while Phil Stubbins’ Newcastle look as if their match-day XIs have been assembled by a random team generator. But the wonderful thing about football is there’s always a ‘but’, and Victory fans – or players for that matter – shouldn’t be chalking this up as a certain three-pointer. Melbourne have a poor record against the Jets, especially in Newcastle where Victory have won just two of 13 games, fairly extraordinary when you consider their relative success over the years. Moreover, Newcastle have yet to play at home this season due to the resurfacing of Hunter Stadium (in preparation for the Asian Cup), and that may in some way account for their wayward start, which has seen them claim just a single point. So Newcastle will relish their first home game of the season and hopefully the pitch – which has only just been completed –will hold together in what will be its first test. Newcastle will be hoping the home crowd will spur them to greater heights while those same fans will be hoping to see Marcos Flores and Scott Neville, rested from last week’s trip to Perth, exert a positive influence on a team that needs a good deal of positive reinforcement.

The Mariners’ hunger

Formations, tactics and the individual abilities of the players play a big role in determining the outcome of a football match but often winning or losing comes down to the respective teams’ collective desire – or, at least, their ability to channel it. We often forget this when we’re conducting autopsies on matches and concluding, retrospectively, how they were decided, and feeling clever about such conclusions after the fact. But the Central Coast Mariners’ Eddy Bosnar this week reminded us of the influence of the mind on a sporting contest when he opined that his team’s back-to-back losses in their past two games could not be attributed to any particular failings in their set up. “The errors we’ve had aren’t as a result of problems with our shape or organisation; we are just not being hungry enough to defend our goal,’’ Bosnar said ahead of Sunday’s home match against the competition’s surprise packets, Perth Glory. “We need to be more brutal and put our bodies on the line. You have to be smart about it, but throw our bodies in front of the ball and defend our goal with passion … It’s not just the defenders, it’s across the park, we need to more hungry.’’ So how hungry will Phil Moss’s team be this week? A bit peckish or starving?

Fixtures

Friday: Wellington Phoenix v Western Sydney Wanderers, Westpac Stadium, Wellington, 5.30pm (AEST)

Adelaide United v Sydney FC, Coopers Stadium, Adelaide, 7.45pm

Saturday: Newcastle Jets v Melbourne Victory, Hunter Stadium, 5pm

Brisbane Roar v Melbourne City, Suncorp Stadium, 7.30pm

Sunday: Central Coast Mariners v Perth Glory, Central Coast Stadium, 5pm