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Queensland Roar are banking on Adelaide United’s attacking ambition to bring the Reds undone at Suncorp Stadium tomorrow.
United are developing a reputation for parsimony off the back of their impressive Asian Champions League campaign and last week’s 1-0 success over Perth Glory – the only outright result of A-League round one.
But Roar coach Frank Farina believes Adelaide will play tomorrow with greater ambition than to simply hit the home side on the counter-attack in classic road trip fashion, opening up holes in the United defensive set-up.
“They’re a good defensive team, there’s no doubt about it, but I don’t think they play defensive football,” Farina said.
“They’ll come up here maybe in mind to play counter attack, but I just think they’re a solid defensive unit.
“To win games you’ve got to get forward you try and score goals, so hopefully if they do try and come up here and win, it’ll open things up for us.”
Much of the build-up this week has been dominated by the verbal sparring of Roar tyro Michael Zullo and ex-Queensland centre-half Saso Ognenovski.
The barbs obscured a truth that Ognenovski and defensive offsider Ang Costanzo are hardly the quickest, though Farina said good defence was often more about positioning than speed.
“Pace is always important, but you don’t have to be lightning quick in terms of playing at the back,” he said.
“Some people say players lack pace, but I’ll use Tony Popovic as an example.
“Tony’s never been quick but he’s quick upstairs in terms of his thought process and his intelligence.
“I just like that in our side we do have a lot of pace and pace can sometimes get you out of trouble and then win you games.”
Former Socceroo Craig Moore remains in extreme doubt due to a jarred knee after not training today, while Adelaide will lack the physical presence of marquee striker Paul Agostino, also nursing a knee problem.
In his place will be new signing Robert Younis, who has Agostin
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