A-League tipping Round 22 : Clear your Saturday night

Are we down to a two-horse race for the premiership? After Sydney FC dropped down into the chasing pack and Auckland FC exacted revenge for their two home defeats to Newcastle Jets, it certainly looks like it. Of course, as consumers of the most unpredictable football league in the world know, there’s still a long way to go, and seeing Melbourne Victory holding that plate aloft is not out of the realms of possibility.

Will The Roar be back in time to see the end-of-season excitement? Who knows, but we’ll keep the flame burning here while we wait to see what transpires from the country’s favourite sports debate website in the coming weeks. Stick with us, we’ll finish the season here and see what happens.

Make our day, share a comment or two, enter your tips in the Google sheet and keep The Crowd well ahead of our ‘experts’.

Stuart Thomas

Western Sydney, Auckland, Wellington, Victory, Newcastle, City

It is pretty much last chance saloon for the Wanderers and with backs up against the wall, they get the win they need against the Reds in Sydney. Auckland are running hot and looking serious threats for the title. Macarthur not good enough on the road.

Wellington and Brisbane in a mid-table clash is a beauty and I reckon the away side gets the points. Victory is building and will be hard to beat from this point on. Central Coast not up to the task on the road.

Sydney FC and the Jets is a beauty. Newcastle finally starting to show some cracks but able to get over the Smurfs. City was good last week and will be so again against the Glory in Perth.

Andrew Prentice

Western Sydney, Auckland, Brisbane, Victory, Newcastle, City

A round overshadowed by the looming giant of an 80,000 sellout for the Matildas tilt at glory on Saturday night, the opening game of A League Round 22 is another reminder of what came before. More than a decade ago, Adelaide and the Wanderers played a thrilling Grand Final in front of 50,000 in Adelaide. The Reds form has been like a souffle rising twice of late. Almost there but not quite. I feel the Wanderers are ready to take advantage of that inconsistency and post a much-needed win.

Auckland sounded an ominous warning last week in beating the high-flying Jets and reducing the race for top spot to 1 point. Macarthur fell further into the abyss and their season is in freefall. Anything other than a convincing Auckland win here will bring the stewards running in.

The Phoenix are improving, but the Roar are hanging in there. Wellington are not great travellers and a humid Brissy afternoon won’t be to their liking. Sandwiched in the middle of a Saturday feast of football that covers about 10 hours, it would be easy to overlook this, but both clubs can still entertain finals possibilities with a win. The Roar to do so at home.

The remarkable Mariners run continued last week, with only an 89^th minute Adelaide equaliser denying them all the points. But just like the Jets, it has to end some time, and the Victory look primed to spoil the Gosford party. They were ruthless against the Bulls and are humming along nicely at the right time of the year. The Mariners will be gutsy enough to keep them at bay but may get unpicked just enough for Victory to throw a spanner in Central Coast’s finals aspirations.

Sydney were the drizzling…well, you know, on Tuesday night in front of probably the smallest crowd in their history. It might be uncertainty over who’s coaching them next season with Ufuk Talay off-contract, it might be the lack of marquee talisman Joe Lolley. But unless it’s fixed pronto, the Jets will roll them like Sara Lee pastry on Sunday. The Jets could have pinched points from Auckland but were ultimately kept out by a resolute Black Knights defence. A lot will hinge on the fitness of Clayton Taylor, who didn’t make it to half time against the North Islanders. 

Freed of the ACL shackles after a penalty shootout elimination, City were less bad than Sydney on Tuesday. They’ve added Daniel Arzani to the roster to make them less one-dimensional and Max Caputo has recently rediscovered his early season scoring touch. Perth treated their New Zealand stopover as a holiday last week and forgot to turn up for the Phoenix match. Back at home, wildly inconsistent, they could do just about anything or nothing on Sunday evening, at which point the Australian football community might be celebrating like its 2015, or crying themselves to sleep. City’s quality should see them win.

Texi Smith

Western Sydney, Auckland, Brisbane, Victory, Sydney, City

A-League football returns to CommBank Stadium, the AFC signage now stripped and normal service resumed; the pristine surface will suit the Wanderers, whose form definitely does not belong at the bottom of the ladder. Their struggle is moulding all the individual components of their talented team into a fully functioning unit – Adelaide United are still well and truly entrenched in a shoot-out for a top-six berth, but tonight they will misfire and gift the points to their lowly hosts. Bozhidar Kraev with the all-important winner to breathe life into the Wanderers’ ailing season.

Ever since being narrowly pipped by Newcastle Jets, Macarthur FC’s season has gone down the gurgler. Their two midfield generals in Anthony Caceres and Luke Brattan will provide the solid protection for the under-siege defence in Auckland as the home team struggles to break down the rearguard action. Luke Rogerson finally breaks the resistance just before half time, and the game opens up for the home team to slam home a flurry of goals to keep their premiership defence intact. Where to now for the Bulls – they have simply been awful for the last month.

It’s not that long ago that ten-man Wellington Phoenix went to Redcliffe and demolished Brisbane Roar in the most unlikely result. This time the Roar are back at their unwanted home of Suncorp Stadium, and with the Vibe Manager working his magic, the home team will be purring. Both of these teams could use a win to kickstart their finals push, and they are both only three points off the top six, even if goal difference continues to be a niggling problem. Revenge is sweet for the home team, Michael Ruhs scoring twice in the first half to have the injury-ravaged Roar comfortable at the break, and despite a spirited comeback in the second period, Paulo Retre continuing his renaissance, Wellington can’t snatch an equaliser.

Two form teams clash in the Matildas’ curtain raiser at AAMI Park, Central Coast Mariners only just missing out on three points last weekend against Adelaide while Melbourne Victory crushed the struggling Bulls. We’ve seen both clubs rise meteorically from standing starts, but the Juan Mata effect combined with a rejuvenated Socceroos star in Nishan Velupillay will have Victory on top for large parts of the game. As Vince Rugari says, this league is insane, and with the Mariners takng the lead through Ali Auglah in first half stoppage time against the run of play, alarm bells are ringing. Keegan Jelacic gives Victory the equaliser towards the end and Clarismario Santos curls in a pearler to win it in added time to keep Victory’s momentum going.

Sydney FC have been playing ugly football this season, and their two mid-season star signings have hardy made any difference, even disrupting the form they were showing, destabilising their existing marquee-ish overseas players. Somehow they cling on to third spot, and they have the know-how to beat the in-form Newcastle Jets as they did quite convincingly earlier in the season. The Jets have been organised into an exciting unit, their incredible run of wins taking them breezing past the peleton, but Auckland FC are back in their slipstream and ready to pounce if they can’t get anything today. Max Burgess has his head in his hands though on his return to Allianz Stadum, Lachie Bayliss firing past the post of an unguarded net deep into injury time as Sydney hang on for a one-goal win, Apostolos Stamatelopoulos having repaid Sydney’s faith with a towering header only five minutes earlier.

The most untippable game of the round is saved for last. Perth Glory can overtake their opponents with a handsome win, but with Daniel Arzani and Marcus Younis on song, it’s going to take something special. City have too much experience at the back for Glory, and this becomes a real duel to see who can fashion the one goalscoring chance. Max Caputo slides home the winner midway through the second half, and free from the shackles of the Asian Champions League, City dominate the rest of the game without looking entirely convincing. Perth may now be out of contention for a finals spot as this is a proper six-pointer in the A-League ladder.

Our tipsters are as successful as all other tipsters of this marvellous league. Which is not very successful at all. The Crowd fell into the trap usually reserved for our panel and came up short last week :

Get your selections in. It will cost you five seconds of your time to do it, and it will help the Crowd keep their lead in the most untippable tipping competition… after last week they really need it!

Best of luck with your guesses tips this week! Drop us a comment below, keep The Roar’s football page alive and enjoy the football on show. A week off next week for the A-League, so get around it!