Roar Guru
For Sydney FC and Brisbane Roar, the entire A-League season comes down to this game. Both teams are in control of their own destiny: win, and they’re into the finals. We’ll have live scores and updates from 8.00pm AEDT.
The team that loses (or in the event of a draw) this last match of the home-and-away season will nervously await the result of Newcastle’s and Perth’s games (Friday and Saturday respectively).
Mike Mulvey’s Brisbane squad have a 10-goal lead on Sydney in goal differential but are equal in points with Frank Farina’s Sydney and both are only nervously one point ahead of Newcastle and Perth.
Farina called the match their ‘grand final’ earlier this week, a sentiment not echoed by the Roar coach, who is treating the game like any other.
Sydney is the underdog for this game as they haven’t been able to win an away game against Brisbane since September 2007, although they did defeat Brisbane 2-1 in their last game just over a month ago in Sydney.
Over the past three weeks, Sydney has remained undefeated, with perhaps their best performance coming last week, holding the rampaging Western Sydney Wanderers to a 1-1 draw.
Sydney will be without Brett Emerton, who received a straight red in the Sydney derby last weekend and also defender Lucas Neill, who has succumbed to a hamstring injury.
Brisbane recent form has been spotty, with an encouraging 2-0 win last weekend against the Heart but a tough loss the week before to the Mariners.
They’ll be bolstered with Socceroo Jade North, who wasn’t used in Australia’s game against Oman on Tuesday night.
Keep your eyes on the two players in the mix for the golden boot – Besart Berisha (Brisbane) and Alessandro del Piero (Sydney) are both on 13 goals and only three behind leader Danny McBreen; perhaps a bit of magic will put them on top.
We’ll have live commentary on the Roar from 8.00pm AEDT, so feel free to leave your thoughts in the space below.