 |
| Luke Brattan up in arms for Brisbane Roar. |
This Friday Brisbane Roar travels to Adelaide to take on the much vaunted, 'Gombau led' Reds. The Queensland team has managed to sneak into the finals courtesy of Perth Glory's inglorious demotion, and despite finishing sixth in the regular season, pose the biggest threat to Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC.
Brisbane started A-League season 2014/15 in dreadful form. After seven matches the Roar had amassed a whole four points. Somehow, the club turned things around, and from February 2nd went five matches undefeated. Once their Asian Champions League commitments arrived Brisbane's new found domestic consistency took a blow, but nevertheless they're in the finals, and the roster available has enough class to do some damage.
Their recent win against Beijing Guoan was something we didn't think possible. Heading to China with only the burning embers of their ACL campaign flickering, Brisbane defeated a Beijing outfit that hadn't tasted defeat in 21 matches. It was ugly, and un-Brisbane like, but sometimes you just have to forget the aesthetics and get the money.
Serbian striker Andrija Kaluderovic got the goal in the 40th minute, and from that time on it was batten down the hatches and get gritty with it. Brisbane dug-in in defiance of the 35,000 plus fans, and it's that kind of character that should see them come away with a win against a similar opponent this Friday.
Adelaide, the favourites in many quarters are the pin up boys of the league. All season long their flowing football has caught the eye, and manager Josep Gombau believes his team are better prepared than last year when they fell at the first hurdle (CCM) in the finals. They'll have the services of Spaniard Isaias who was in doubt earlier this week.
Unfortunately the Reds will go into the match minus front man Bruce Djite. The man whose team mates say is underrated is out with a groin strain and Adelaide really don't have anyone who can provide the same physicality.
Additionally, Brisbane dealt Adelaide a psychological blow just three weeks ago when they beat them 3-2 at Hindmarsh Stadium. The Roar led 3-0 after 54 minutes before the home team picked up a 71st minute goal and another in the 95th.
Another factor against Adelaide is the venue change for the do or die fixture. The match has been switched to Adelaide Oval in a bid to maximise ticket sales. The Reds manager revealed his disappointment at the decision during a press conference, "The decision is not what we want but we need to respect it. We need to play and we need to win."
If you like a bet Brisbane are just too hard to ignore. One betting agency has them at $4 to win in the regulation 90 minutes. With the aforementioned factors taken into account, those odd are just too good to pass up.
