The last time the Brisbane Roar and Western Sydney Wanderers met in an A-League fixture, it was on the final day of last season. The Roar lifted the famed toilet seat as they were crowned champions in front of a sell-out Suncorp Stadium.
On Wednesday night the two teams meet and the circumstances simply could not be any different.
The game is likely to officially be a sell-out, but as seen in previous midweek fixtures, there’s a good chance some season ticket holders won’t be able to attend.
That’s where the similarities end.
The Wanderers, despite their amazing success in Asia, are anchored to the bottom of the A-League, without a win.
Meanwhile, the champions in the Roar have just the one win to their name, have just lost their marquee and best player, Thomas Broich, for at least six weeks, and are without the coach who led them to the historic double last season.
Simply put, both teams would like a win tonight, but it will be the home team who need to win.
After back-to-back draws in front of their home crowd, the Wanderers need to kick into gear to salvage their season before the top sides pull too far away.
For the visiting Roar, a win would place them in the top six and would deliver a much needed morale boost following the news that Broich will be unavailable for almost two months.
Both teams achieved success last season on the back of their well organised defence, but nothing could be further from that this season. Both teams have shipped 12 goals in their opening seven fixtures.
Although Newcastle and Melbourne City have conceded more, the fact that defences containing the likes of Nikolai Topor-Stanley, Matthew Spiranovic and Jade North have conceded so many is unusual to say the least.
While both sides have struggled to contain their opposition, both have also struggled to find the back of the net.
Although nine goals for the Roar in seven games is hardly the end of the world, it’s not so positive when you’re conceding 12 in the same period.
The Wanderers, who boast the likes of Tomi Juric and Nikita Rukavytsya in their ranks, have only managed six goals.
It’s tough to win games when you’re averaging less than a goal a game.
The Wanderers, who were the better side in the most recent Sydney derby despite the 1-1 scoreline, will go in as favourites on the back of home ground advantage and the injury to Broich.
Although both sides are close to the bottom of the table, it should be an entertaining affair based on the fact that both sides are almost at that stage of ‘must win’ despite being less than 10 rounds into the season.
Josh
Guest
should be a good night, we should see a better crowd than the embarrassing 3500 turnout a few Wednesday nights ago.
AZ_RBB
Guest
COYW!! Hopefully the wet weather makes it harder for Brisbane to implement their passing game.
AZ_RBB
Guest
What was the HAL pre-season target for pet memberships?
Punter
Guest
Bottom of the league clash Joshy boy.
Josh
Guest
Did you see the star above the crest ? No not the stars Abbas was seeing, just the one for the ACL title.
Punter
Guest
Should be a great night between 2 bottom place teams.
Punter
Guest
Great news!!!!
RBBAnonymous
Guest
A win and we move from last spot into the top 6 :D
AZ_RBB
Guest
Maybe if Graham Arnold stopped hogging all the attention, more people would be talking about this. Sticking the WSW v SFC battle, it will be interesting to see which team gets the better midweek crowd as SFC play at home tomorrow night, also against interstate opposition. The pressure on the team to win tonight is enormous. There's no denying it
Josh
Guest
Some of the best nights i've ever had at Parramatta have been in the driving rain. Their loss.
Matthew Skellett
Guest
In other news ; the HAL is only 85 club members away from reaching their pre-season set target of 110, 000 HAL Club Members for the season
Brian
Guest
Given that top sides can change year to year I really there is a case for having the two Grand Finalists playing in Round 1 each year maybe on the opening Saturday night. I accept this year there is a lot of fixture compromises between hosting the Asian Cup and WSW winning the Asian club championship.
Matthew Skellett
Guest
Well I'm going Franko which will make it a majority sell-out ;-)
Franko
Guest
With Broich out it's a great chance for WSW to pick up 3 points. Really like the look of Ruka and am expecting him to find the net tonight. Expect the crowd to be low, it's storming every afternoon in Sydney at the moment.