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The Wellington Phoenix will be looking to move into the top two on the A-League ladder with a win over the Brisbane Roar at Westpace Stadium this afternoon. Join The Roar for a live blog of the match between the Phoenix and the Roar from 3:00pm AEDT.
With a win, or a draw this afternoon against the Roar, the Phoenix will move into the top 2 in the league for at least 48 hours.
They can remain in the top two if the Western Sydney Wanderers defeat the Melbourne Victory on Tuesday night.
The Phoenix has this opportunity after impressing during the holiday period. After defeating the Wanderers at home on December 28, they then spoiled the New Year’s Eve celebrations of Adelaide United by winning away from home at Coopers Stadium.
The 3-1 win was their first in the City of Churches since 2012.
It also proved that the Phoenix can survive without Nathan Burns. Burns – who has scored 10 goals for the club this season – is currently on duty with the Socceroos at the Asian Cup. In his absence, others stepped up, with Tyler Boyd and Kenny Cunningham scoring the goals in the win.
The win also gave the Phoenix a perfect record during the Christmas break with the New Zealand team the only club to have an unblemished record during the last week.
Today they will be looking to go three from three against an opponent they have had trouble with in their history.
Against the Roar, the Phoenix has a terrible record, since they started facing the Queensland team in 2007.
In 21 matches between the two, the Phoenix has only won twice, with the last win coming in 2011.
In the other 19 matches, the Roar has won 14 of them, with the other five ending in draws.
With the form the Roar are in, during the Christmas break, the Phoenix has a good chance to win for the third time against them.
After playing an entertaining 3-3 draw against the Mariners on December 27, where they almost lost the match, they then had a scoreless draw against Sydney FC to finish the year.
The 0-0 draw was a game in which both teams look tired and fatigued throughout the match. Both teams didn’t look like scoring, and they lacked the creativity to create the vital goal in the match.
Now the Roar has to travel overseas and face a team that is one of the form teams of the competition.
It will be a tough task for the tired team and the Phoenix will start hot favourites for the clash.
If the Phoenix is to win today they will have to do it without Roy Krishna and Nathan Burns who are out of the match.
Burns is still out with Asian Cup duty with Krishna out because of a hamstring injury.
Apart from that the Phoenix has named an unchanged line-up for the clash against the Roar.
For the Roar they have only promoted Shannon Brady into the squad for the match.
They will have to omit one player from the squad before the match begins.
The key to the match will be the defence of the Roar against the attack of the Phoenix.
The Phoenix – with the second best attack in the league – will battle a Roar side that has conceded 16 goals in 12 matches.
This makes them the fourth worst defence in the league.
As they showed against Adelaide the Phoenix still have options in attack without Burns and Krishna.
Tyler Boyd is one of them after scoring two goals against the Reds.
Another is Jeremy Brockie, who plays his final match in the A-League today.
He will travel to South Africa later in the week to play for SuperSport United after signing a four year deal with them in December.
He will be looking to end his Phoenix career on a high with a win and a goal.
Kenny Cunningham – who scored against Adelaide – is another option in attack for the Phoenix.
If the Roar is to take anything away from this match then they need to stop these three players.
They also need to find a goal scoring option.
Henrique has not scored a goal in his last three matches after scoring 7 goals to start the season.
Others including Jean-Carlos Solorzano and Dimitri Petratos need to find the net soon.
The duo has only found the net twice this season with both goals coming from Solorzano in the draw against Central Coast last week.
They need to start scoring soon to help Henrique out in attack.
This game looks to be a perfect game for the Phoenix. They have the home ground advantage against a team who looks like they need a rest.
When you combine that with the recent form of both teams the Phoenix look the goods to win their 4th straight match in the league today.
Prediction – 2-0 Wellington in their 200th A-League match.
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