Adelaide United vs Western Sydney Wanderers: Reds lose at home, again

Match result:

Roly Bonevacia has led the Western Sydney Wanderers to their first away win this calendar year, with a famous 3-1 win at Coopers Stadium.

Goals to Oriel Riera, Bonevacia, and Abraham Majok gave Western Sydney a thoroughly deserved win over top 4 and championship aspirant Adelaide.

Ryan Kitto scored for the home side in the first half, to give the sides parity at half time.

Tonight was all about Bonevacia, who owned this game and almost won it off his own boot. It should give Western Sydney fans hope of what an in-form Bonevacia and a fit Alexander Baumjohann can achieve for this team.

The introspection for Adelaide will be long and deep, and with a tricky away trip to a tired but in-form Newcastle next weekend, the race for finals positions is truly heating up.

A brilliant performance by the visitors to win back to back matches for the first time this season.

Final score
Adelaide United 1
Western Sydney Wanderers 3

Match preview:

We head to Coopers Stadium for the Round 19 clash between the top six Adelaide United and the bottom four Western Sydney Wanderers. Join The Roar from 7:50pm (AEDT) for live scores and blog of the game.

With the finals now looming large, it really is time for the top six team with the worst home record to step things up.

Adelaide still have visions of taking out the championship, but if they stay in the top four and have to host a final, then they will want to start learning how to win, and win convincingly, at home beforehand.

Western Sydney present a great opportunity for the Reds to mark off a home win, boost their finals credentials, and possibly even make a late run at a top three berth.

The problem for the Reds has been two-fold at times this season.

One, is in attack, where without a red-hot Craig Goodwin, the source of their goals now appears somewhat uncertain.

The other aspect that should be troubling Marco Kurz, is discipline, where the Reds continue to accumulate cards like collectors.

As for the Wanderers, unfortunately for them, they have somehow managed to plant themselves into an unlikely three-way battle with the Roar and Mariners for the wooden spoon.

How this season has come to a point of battling with the bottom for Western Sydney remains a mystery, and you would likely think that coach Babbel will meet a similar fate to his predecessor if things do not improve dramatically, and soon.

While a solid, if unconvincing 2-nil win against the Mariners should ease the spoon pressure, it won’t soothe the pain of its coaching staff and fans, who legitimately felt they were finals-bound when round 1 kicked off this season.

For the Wanderers, facing a team that is still awkward at home, and looking for their first back-to-back wins in a year, is strong incentive for the Sydney team to put in a competitive performance.

In somewhat of a surprising inclusion for Western Sydney, the return of the evergreen Mark Bridge.

Prediction
Normally this would be easy, and while I am still going to tip Adelaide, I have zero confidence.

These teams have been largely unpredictable this season, but over the previous 18 games, the form guide now suggests that Adelaide should be too strong for the team third from bottom.

The seven-game unbeaten run against Western Sydney also helps.

Adelaide 2-nil.

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Adelaide United
1.Daniel MARGUŠ (gk), 2.Michael MARRONE, 3.Scott GALLOWAY, 4.Ryan STRAIN, 6.Vince LIA, 7.Ryan KITTO, 8.Isaías SÁNCHEZ (c), 10.Ken ILSØ, 11.Craig GOODWIN, 14.George BLACKWOOD, 16.Nathan KONSTANDOPOULOS, 19.Jordy THOMASSEN, 20.Paul IZZO (gk), 22.Michael JAKOBSEN, 23.Jordan ELSEY, 24.Pacifique NIYONGABIRE, 31.Mirko BOLAND, 32.Carlo ARMIENTO

Western Sydney Wanderers
5.Brendan HAMILL (c), 8.Jordan O’DOHERTY, 9.Oriol RIERA, 10.Alex BAUMJOHANN, 11.Bruce KAMAU, 12.Mitchell DUKE, 13.Tass MOURDOUKOUTAS, 14.Mathieu CORDIER, 17.Keanu BACCUS, 19.Mark BRIDGE, 20.Vedran JANJETOVIC (gk), 21.Tarek ELRICH, 22.Rashid MAHAZI, 27.Kwame YEBOAH, 28.Roly BONEVACIA, 33.Tate RUSSELL, 40.Nicholas SUMAN (gk), 49.Abraham MAJOK