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Adelaide United and Perth Glory do battle at Coopers Stadium in the first ever FFA Cup final. Join The Roar for live scores and commentary from 7:30pm (AEDT).
It’s been a great start of the debut year of the FFA Cup final where the worlds of ‘old soccer’ and ‘new football’ have finally been reunited. We’ve been treated to some great upsets and classic encounters, along with an outstanding goal or two, and now with two teams left standing from the original 32.
Perth Glory, the surprise league leaders so far in the A-League, and Adelaide United, flying high in year two of the Josep Gombau project.
This should be an entertaining game between two talented but contrasting teams, both eager to finally claim some silverware.
For the Glory this is the chance to show the revival out west is no flash in the pan.
They may be top of the pile after 10 rounds, with just one loss and one draw, but they feel they haven’t been getting the respect they deserve. If they can knock off the Reds, they will certainly have it.
Perth has already defeated two A-League rivals on the way to the final, dumping Newcastle out 1-0 in the first round and then Melbourne Victory 4-2 in the quarter-finals. In the round of 16 they put four past St Alban Saints and were too classy for Bentleigh Greens in the semi, running out 3-0 victors.
Kenny Lowe’s boys are in form and full of confidence. They may have lost Yousouff Hersi to injury but Andy Keogh is knocking goals in for fun and is being ably supported by the likes of Socceroos Richard Garcia and Mitch Nichols.
Rostyn Griffiths is arguably in career-best form, Nebojsa Marinkovic and Danny Vukovic are on fire, while Dino Djulbic and Michael Thwaite have struck up a great partnership at the back.
It’s a strong squad with attacking threat provided by Chris Harold, Jamie Maclaren and Sidnei Sciola off the bench. Perth like to mix up their style, playing direct when need to, but also have a touch of class with Marinkovic and Nichols. The Glory seemed to have struck up a great team chemistry and although they are away for this one, a 2-0 win over Newcastle on Friday puts them in the right mood for the final.
Adelaide come into Tuesday’s clash on the back of a surprise 1-0 loss to Brisbane. Gombau’s side were without Marcelo Carrusca and Nigel Boogaard, and seemed to lack a little fluency. They had enough chances against the Roar but butchered plenty.
The key to the Adelaide machine is Carrusca, Isaias and Cirio, and the interplay between them. All three are gifted footballers and have the passing range to unleash Fabio Ferriera, Awer Mabil and Craig Goodwin on the wings and Bruce Djite up front.
Goodwin has been reborn in South Australia while James Jeggo has also gone to a new level. Mabil can be hit and miss but has unbelievable pace and can terrorise when on song, while Pablo Sanchez has been a canny signing from Gombau.
Tarek Elrich has been unbelievable this season but the Reds’ defence will miss the injured Osama Malick. Gombau went with a back three against Brisbane but I’d expect a return to a back four for Perth.
Adelaide’s journey to the final has been tougher than the Glory’s with four straight victories over A-League teams – Wellington, Brisbane, Sydney FC and Central Coast. The Reds beat Perth earlier this season, the only team to do so, and are on home soil.
They will be confident and unlikely to be as wasteful with their shooting as they were on Friday night. Gombau’s Barca-inspired brigade against Lowe’s westies at a sold out Coopers Stadium, this should be a cracker.
Join The Roar from 7.30pm (AEDT) for all the action
Follow John Davidson on Twitter @johnnyddavidson
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