A tough week for both Wellington Phoenix fans and Auckland FC fans who witnessed their clubs first loss of their existence. The Nix slide down to 9th on table while the chase to catch Auckland has closed to just one point.
After a festive feed the players are back in action for a quick round starting with Adelaide hosting Western Sydney on the 27th and ending with Western United welcoming the winless Brisbane Roar on Sunday.
It almost feels like a double round with games starting again on New Years Eve, but we’ll get to that after holiday.
Adelaide are leading the chase to catch Auckland FC and are now only one point behind the league leaders. They could have led the league heading into Christmas if not for Douglas Costa and Courtney-Perkins bought Sydney back to level in the last minutes of the game.
Western Sydney dominated the Nix at home and now find themselves just outside the top 6.
Last week I wasn’t sure if Adelaide were actually good or if they’ve just had an easy schedule. Turns out, they’re decent. They should have beaten Sydney last week and most definitely should beat Western Sydney this week.
The Glory earned their first mark in the win collum as they got up over the Brisbane Roar who solidify their title as the worst team in the A-League.
After a 1-1 draw to round off last week’s match week, Macarthur moved to 5th place with three wins, three draws and three loses.
An up and down couple of months to start for the Bulls but the schedule gets a little harder after this one, so they’re going to need to lock in and take three points from the Glory away from home.
Fresh off a bye, the Jets head across the Tasman to take on the Nix who are slowly falling behind. Hideki Ishige provided some hope for the Nix with his second half stunner, but they still fell short and were handed their third straight defeat.
Newcastle have only two wins to their name with their last match being a 4-0 win over Perth Glory. This looks like chance for the Nix to get back to winning ways in front of a home crowd.
This game has provided more than two goals in seven of their last eight meetings and has occurred in four of the Phoenix’s last five fixtures.
Auckland Fc suffered their first loss of the season, and it looks like the hole that Dan Hall has left might be bigger issue than Steve Corica would have hoped.
Since conceding their first goal three weeks ago, Auckland have not gone without a clean sheet. The Mariners haven’t kept a clean sheet in their last seven games.
Corica needs to work out what’s the best way forward without Dan Hall. The mariners have not looked threatening at all this season so there is some room to experiment for the Black Knights. There should be some changes to how Corica’s squad lines up Saturday.
Both the Victory and Sydney FC grabbed one point each last round. A draw for the Victory in the Melbourne Derby and a draw from the jaws of defeat for Sydney FC against Adelaide United.
Sydney, surprisingly only have three wins to their name this season. Largely due to the fact that they’re conceding the same number of goals as they’re scoring. They’ve scored the third most goals in the league but also conceded the third most.
Great for the total goals market, in their last seven games we’ve seen at least three every time.
Despite being underdogs in this one, Melbourne Victory have won two and drawn one of their last three meetings.
We wrap things up Western United hosting the bottom feeders, Brisbane Roar.
The Roar simply can’t win a football match so back Western United to get the job done at home.