A-League grand final preview: Adelaide United vs Western Sydney Wanderers

The A-League will see a new champion crowned on Sunday evening, when Adelaide United and the Western Sydney Wanderers face off in the grand final at 4:00pm (AEST).

Both sides come into the decider fresh off high-scoring semi-finals. While Adelaide cruised past Melbourne City in a 4-1 rout, the Wanderers had to do it the hard way, coming back from 3-0 down against the Brisbane Roar to win 5-4 in extra time. Those extra 30 minutes, coupled with two fewer days to recover from the semi-final, could weigh heavily on Western Sydney, although they have had a full week to get themselves right for the grand final.

The teams

Adelaide and Western Sydney have both had similar ill-fortune in A-League deciders to date. Both have made the grand final twice, and both have lost twice. Someone will claim their first A-League title.

It’s Adelaide’s first appearance in the big game since they went down by a goal to the Melbourne Victory in 2009 (their other grand final was, of course, the infamous 6-0 thrashing at the hands of the same side in 2007), while the Wanderers lost consecutive deciders in 2013 and 2014.

The previous match-ups between the two couldn’t be more even. The Reds and Wanderers have faced off 12 times, winning four apiece and drawing four more. In recent times, Adelaide clearly have had the upper hand, having won three and drawn four of the last eight encounters, but each of the last three meetings have ended all square.

This will be the first time Adelaide and Western Sydney have met in the finals.

More A-League Grand Final coverage
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Key players

Bruce Djite (Adelaide)
Adelaide will be hoping Djite can retain his fine form for this match. Although the striker’s season tally of 11 goals doesn’t exactly stand out, he’s found the back of the net six times in his last four outings and was on the scoresheet twice in United’s demolition of Melbourne City last week.

With neither side boasting a player right up the top of the competition’s goalscoring charts, Djite could prove to be a real game-breaker if he continues his hot form.

Nikolai Topor-Stanley (Western Sydney)
Standing in the way of Djite is the Wanderers’ captain. Topor-Stanley has been a rock at the back for Western Sydney since the club’s inception in 2012. The burly centre-back was a key player in seeing the Wanderers to their two previous grand finals, and was selected to the Asian Champions League Team of the Year after the club’s fairytale run to the trophy.

With that big-match experience under his belt, the Wanderers will need Topor-Stanley to step up a marshall his defence; a repeat performance of last week’s leaky effort won’t end well this time around.

Isaias (Adelaide)
Djite will be the source of attention up front, but it’s Isaias who directs traffic all around the park for the Reds. The Spaniard has made more interceptions than any other Adelaide player this season and is key to setting the pace and tempo of their play.

If Isaias controls the game from the outset, it’s hard to imagine anything but an Adelaide win.

Romeo Castelen (Western Sydney)
Castelen had been the competition’s most frustrating player this season, an attacking midfielder whose wonderful creative play and clear skill on the ball was routinely undone by woeful finishing in front of goal.

That all changed last week, when the Dutchman bagged a hat-trick to pull the Wanderers back from the brink against the Roar almost single-handedly. Castelen did still rely on an overabundance of shots (eight) to net his three goals, but if can find space around the edge of the box as he did against Brisbane, Adelaide’s defence will be in for a rough time.

The coaches

Tony Popovic
Popovic made a name for himself by blowing expectations to pieces and guiding the Wanderers to the grand final in their first two seasons, then following it up with an Asian Champions League title in 2014.

Now with a revamped squad, Popovic has evolved Western Sydney’s brand of football from the defence-first approach which reaped their early success to a more attacking style this season. Time will tell if it’s more effective in grand finals.

Guillermo Amor
Josep Gombau’s departure had fans worrying about Adelaide’s prospects at the start of the season, and those concerns seemed to be justified when Amor was one game away from presiding over the worst start to a season in the club’s history.

How times have changed.

The former Barcelona player guided Adelaide to their second Premier’s Plate, earning himself Coach of the Year honours along the way, and has seen the club go on a 20-match streak which has involved just the single loss.

Lineups

Both coaches have the same players at their disposal that saw them through to the grand final, so it’s hard to imagine any changes to the successful XIs which lined-up a week ago.

Probable starting XIs

Prediction

History favours a low-scoring affair in this one; not since the Wanderers’ inaugural season have either of these clubs scored more than two goals against the other, so a repeat of last week’s goal-fest seems unlikely.

Adelaide’s recent form is too much to ignore. Coupled with their near-faultless past 20 games, they also boast the stingiest defence in the competition, with just 28 goals conceded during the home-and-away season (and just the one last week).

That’s not to say the Wanderers are without a hope. They proved last week that no situation is beyond them, and Castelen has the ability to break the game open, should he retain his goal-scoring touch.

But playing at home, with a brilliant recent run of results and a scarily in-form striker in Bruce Djite, it’s almost impossible to not tip Adelaide.

Tip: Adelaide 2-0