Sydney FC deserve to be top of the A-League but owe a lot of their success this season to sheer luck, according to Brisbane Roar defender Jade North.
Riding high on the back of a six-game winning streak, the Sky Blues take on the Roar – who are unbeaten in their last four games – at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.
A win for the visitors will equal the best-ever start to an A-League season by any team, while third-placed Brisbane can reduce the margin between the sides to five points if they can produce an upset.
However, as impressive as they’ve been, North believes Sydney have been quite fortunate not to have let in more goals.
“Obviously Sydney are flying at the moment but having said that, they’ve been quite lucky as well, not conceding as many as I thought they maybe should have,” North told reporters on Tuesday.
“They deserve to be where they are but Perth were a little bit unlucky on the weekend with a couple of chances.
“But you’ve got to ride your luck sometimes. They’ve been quite dominant in the front third.”
Both sides should be at full strength, with Brisbane to regain striker Jamie Maclaren, who made his competitive debut for the Socceroos in Tuesday night’s 2-2 draw with Thailand.
Sydney has won just three times in 17 attempts at Suncorp Stadium but won’t be taking any notice of history after setting two new records – the longest winning sequence in club history, and the most goals (17) scored by any team in the first six rounds of a season.
Asked if the Sky Blues would be Brisbane’s biggest test this season, North said: “To this point in time, it will be.”
“We’ve got some great players all over the park and I feel we can really hurt them as well.
“Defensively we’ve been quite solid over the last month and when we start hitting teams and getting some confidence and getting goals, we’re not too far away from giving a team a good hiding.”
Waz
Guest
Can't argue with that, convert Nix, Glory and Victory games to a draw and SFC are unbeaten on 12 points. The thing is about luck, good or bad, is it tends to be contagious and the more good sides play the luckier they tend to get. Roar need to be on their game on Saturday night
Roarfan
Guest
This promises to be a huge game at Suncorp on Saturday night and the Brisbane football community needs to turn up in big numbers to be that indispensable 12th men. Let's enjoy a record attendance and see if we can top the sound record of a couple of years ago when we drew in extra time of the grand final against Central Coast. By and large our boys have been playing fantastic football and if they can repeat the football they played against Melbourne City it is going to be a fantastic spectacle of champagne football. Come in Brisbanites, please support the mighty Roar. loud and proud. Go Roar.