Adelaide host Brisbane Roar on Saturday afternoon with an eye squarely on leap-frogging their opponents and moving into the top two
Brisbane’s dominance in South Australia
Brisbane head to Coopers Stadium with the confidence of history firmly on their side. In this fixture over the past 11 seasons the Roar have managed eight victories in their last 12 meetings and have bagged double the wins of Adelaide on the Reds’ home turf. In fact, prior to the finals series last campaign, United hadn’t tasted home victory over Brisbane in eight outings. Although the Queensland outfit have struggled of late, history often prevails, setting them up for a chance at ending the Red’s undefeated streak.
Expect goals
If these two sides have anything in common it’s goals. This fixture has seen 81 goals since the league’s inception, averaging 2.3 a game, with the last four meetings between Brisbane and Adelaide seeing the back of the net found 16 times. Furthermore, over the past 10 games both sides have only failed to score in two encounters each, netting 18 and 20 respectively; while at the back, the Roar in particular are prone to letting the goals stack up, shipping 15 in that same period. With Jamie MacLaren at the ready and Adelaide’s men in red hot scoring form, this clash looks set to follow in the trajectory of previous meetings.
Can the Roar find balance?
With somewhat similar styles of play the biggest point of difference between Adelaide and their visitors this Saturday is balance. While United have built their campaign on an evenly weighted front line, and encouraging attacking prospects from the midfield and defence, Brisbane have effectively one tried and true outlet for goal – Jamie MacLaren. When the Olyroo doesn’t feature in the side, the Roar lack any potency up front and their overall quality and confidence decreases. Against a side that play such a similar style but to better effect, Brisbane will need to find more balance going forward or they’ll be shown up by the Reds.
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