With finals no longer possible, the Heart are now only playing to avoid the wooden spoon and for the players to prove themselves for next season. Let’s have a look at the previous match against Brisbane and Adelaide’s form ahead of tonight’s game.
Last week’s game against Brisbane Roar:
This match reminded me of Heart’s form earlier on in the season - so many opportunities and close calls. We should have had a penalty early on, which might have influenced how the match went from that point, but no use crying over what wasn’t. Heart certainly had chances that they should have put away and didn’t, leaving the door open for the premiers to walk in.
Behich popped up to finish off a well-worked team effort, but then our defence on the left side was non-existent when Roar scored their first, leaving Velaphi totally exposed. When you bunch together and ball watch, then conceding another goal isn’t far away and when you’re up against the number one team, they will take their chances. Even being a man down in the second half, Roar were the better team with their hunger to win. Heart can learn a lot from Brisbane, like never surrender and never give up.
Adelaide United’s form:
Adelaide are one of the in-form teams in the second half of this season. You have to hand it to Josep Gombau, he had a vision and a plan and stuck to it. It might not of paid off on the scoreboard during the early rounds but it looks like they certainly are paying dividends for the team now. They are fighting for the second spot and a chance to have a home final.
Stats:
- against Adelaide United (Win/Draw/Loss): 2/4/5
- Melbourne Heart’s form last five matches: 1/1/3
- Adelaide United form last five matches: 3/1/1
Preview of Adelaide United VS Melbourne Heart:
Adelaide will be on home soil and building up to a finals run so this will be a tough one for the Heart. We still have only one away win all season and we’ve only beaten Adelaide twice in our short history. However we came very close to beating them in late January when we were shaping up to briefly become the in-form team. Now over the last few rounds Heart has been performing like a bottom side team, with Perth now level with us on points.
Full credit to Engelaar for what he has been able to show us over the last few months, but maybe not having a proper pre-season, along with his injuries, has caught up with him. We need the big man to shine again, when he is playing well we seem to be a winning team. With Adelaide playing for home finals, they might just have us on this one.
Go Heart!
