North Queensland Fury Vs Adelaide United

[Il Duce]

Seventh-placed Adelaide United will be looking to return to the winner’s circle when they face the bottom-placed North Queensland Fury at Dairy Farmers Stadium on Sunday afternoon in the round 8 clash.

Adelaide will be hoping to put in a better performance than in their last outing against fierce rivals Melbourne Victory, where they lost 2 – 0 and played poorly. United were sloppy and couldn’t find a pass or the back of the net against the Victory, and will need to rectify these problems if they are going to come away from Townsville with any points.

United are going to need to find some goals, which have generally been a feature of this contest the two times it has been played this season, already once in the league and once as a pre-season friendly, with the Fury having scored three times in both contests, whilst United scored twice in the pre-season friendly and three times in the league when the game was played at Hindmarsh stadium just under a month ago in round four.

There have been calls for Red’s coach Aurelio Vidmar to opt for a more attacking 4-4-2 formation in the search of goals, and the calls have only become stronger since Adelaide have only managed six goals this season, with three of them coming in the same game, and only the one on the road. This call for a formation change has also come about due to the Reds rather stuttering start and unfortunate injuries, with anchorman Paul Reid out for a further three weeks with a thigh injury. The obvious deficiencies when going forward haven’t helped stubborn Vidmar either.

The Reds will be hoping that their defence continues to gel, and hopefully return to rock-solid defending from last season that saw them make the Asian Champions League and A-league finals. Better cover for keeper Eugene Galekovic is dearly needed, the second Victory goal last week would have been easily prevented had there been better marking and positioning.

North Queensland Fury comes into this game in a run of good form, with a win and three draws from their last 4 games and with striker Robbie Fowler in red-hot form, having netted four goals from seven games. The Fury players seem to be bonding together after a rough start to the season, and seem to have developed a ‘work-for-each-other’ mentality, which is allowing them to grind out results and pick up points. Three ex-United players are in the Fury side, Jason Spagnuolo, Rostyn Griffiths and Fred Agius, and all three would love to play against their old club, and help Fury pick up the victory in front of their home fans.

However the Fury aren’t without problems of their own as owners Minniecon and Burke have withdrawn their financial interest in the club, and the restructuring inside the board room early this week has created a little uneasiness around the club. The Fury also have on-field problems, mainly the need of the defence to close down opponents quicker, and thus not allowing shooting opportunities and the need for the midfield to drop back and help out more in defence.

Both teams will be looking for a win, and with the home crowd behind them, and the collective good form of Fowler and the team, North Queensland should start as favourites to pick up the victory at Dairy Farmers Stadium; however a draw is the most likely outcome.

Written by Ilario Finis (Il Duce)

[Il Duce]

Well after that result


my preview

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egg-on-face1.jpg (31.39 KiB) Viewed 332 times

[JK]

Was a fair prediction though mate, I reckon I would called similarly.

[Il Duce]

Yeah your right there, I guess I couldn't of anticipated Leckie comming on a scoring that good goal or the fact that Lucas was going to decied to play and score and the Fury did stuff a few chances they should of scored in.