A-League: Finals Week 1

[meh]

Friday 29th March - Elimination Final
Wellington Phoenix vs Sydney FC @ Westpac Stadium
Saturday 30th March - Semi Final Leg 1
Brisbane Roar vs Central Coast Mariners @ Suncorp Stadium
Sunday 31st March - Elimination Final
Perth Glory vs Melbourne Heart @ NIB Stadium

Wellington 2 - 1 Sydney (AET)
Brisbane Roar 1 - 1 CCM
Perth 2 - 0 Melbourne Heart

Big weeks of finals action, Wellington should do over Sydney fairly comfortably, they've beaten them on all 3 occasions this season including twice at the Cake Tin, Bosschaart & Beauchamp were a walking calamity last time and I'd expect Ifill, who has been quiet in recent weeks, to explode.

Brisbane look sharp but they are still butchering too many chances, I'm expecting them to dominate 75% of the match but the Mariners to knick one on the counter, Rose and Bojic killed the Roar at Suncorp last time ,they are the real key for the Mariners. Sutton needs a big game, he should have a physical advantage over Adnan & Smith, they couldn't cope with Simon, Sutton is a similar build, he needs to use that to his advantage.

Can't see the Heart troubling Perth too many, although if the Heart are to get a result it's all on Fred's shoulders, they are a different side with him pulling the strings. Perth look in good touch and should be strengthened by the return of Burns, Miller & Van den Brink, should be easy pickings for the Glory. Really happy to see them at this stage of the season, hopefully see them go all the way.

[meh]

Wellington beat Sydney 3-2

Sounds like an epic final 15 minutes, didn't watch the game but looking forward to the highlights. Wellington were 2-0 up with 10 to go and it was 2-2 5 mins later.

[MarshallMathers]

Shocking decision for mine, huge dive.

Wellington won't beat us next week though, after we smash Heart on Sunday night

[meh]

You reckon? I thought it was a peno, very clumsy from Beauchamp. In any case it was almost good karma for Ifill, he's been absolutely molested in the penalty box 2 or 3 times this season (Boogaard hacking him from behind comes to mind) and got nothing.

[Embers]

A penalty for mine. He just ran into him and took his shooting leg away from him.

Chianese looks like quite a nifty player its fair to say. Great chip over the keeper for his first

[that_dood]

100% penalty. Horrible defending by Beauchamp. Great finish to the match, that second half was what finals football is all about. Fuck anyone who says the finals should be scrapped.

Terrible crowd though, 10k for a final when their last final got 30k is not good. Friday night didn't help though.

Gettign excited for tomorrow. Massive day planned involving heavy drinking and hopefully a brilliant match and a Glory win.

[Heppell]

Shocking crowd in Wellington, 8pm local on Friday night is not great timeslot either.

Brisbane V Central Coast is going to be a cracker.

[Embers]

CCM will beat them over the two legs for mine. Zwaansjik and Wilkinson will quell Brisbanes front line a hell of alot and the Mariners will be able to break and score. Will be a huge threat from the set piece too

[meh]

2-0 to the Roar and could have easily been 4 or 5, some days you just wonder how the Mariners are where they are on the table, they were destroyed by the Roar yesterday.

[MarshallMathers]

Under 2 hours to go!

Surely we can't stuff this up. Heart are without Collisimo too.

[MarshallMathers]

2-0 to the Roar and could have easily been 4 or 5, some days you just wonder how the Mariners are where they are on the table, they were destroyed by the Roar yesterday.

They've burnt out badly.

Amini has done SFA all season. Must have his mind on going to Dortmund after the season.

Losing Simon didn't help either.

[meh]

Agreed on Amini, he's been gash this year, even on Olyroos duty hes been very poor. The loss of Simon was huge, sure he is a massive tosser but no doubt he would have been top 5 in the Johnny Warren Medal up to when he left, Sutton has been a poor replacement.

[Dogbloke V2]

Games just kicked off at Nib

[Dogbloke V2]

Smeltz scored some freakish/flukey header for his 2nd.

2-0

[Dogbloke V2]

hattrick again!