West Adelaide v MetroStars
South Australia National Premier League Round 11

When: Saturday, May 3rd. Kick-off 7pm
Where: Adelaide Shores Football Centre, West Beach Road, WEST BEACH

Teams:

West Adelaide: M. Alexandridis, M. Alexandrou, N. Andijanto, T. Briscoe, J. Cummins, R. Da Silva, J. Fabbian, T. Guttormsen, A. Hadi, M. Hiern, N. Koskoletos, K. Mantis, L. Miller, L. Moss, P. Pezos, J. Porter, Y. Sarris, K. Tsacos, E. Vlassis, J. Watson, J. Wright

MetroStars: F. Barbiero, R. Callisto, A. Ciarla, M. D Aloisio, L. D'Arrigo, M. Deegan, D. Godley, S. Grelli, J. Groves, A. Ivanov, D. Menechella, P. Mitris, A. Orphanou, A. Polisena, J. Polisena, L. Robertson, A. Solagna, P. Terminello, S. Tunbridge, A. Van Dommele

Form:

West Adelaide: L W W  

Round 8: Adelaide Comets 3-1 West Adelaide, Santos Stadium
Round 9: West Adelaide 2-1 Para Hills Knights, Adelaide Shores Football Centre
Round 10: Western Strikers 1-3 West Adelaide, Carnegie Reserve

MetroStars: W W L

Round 8: MetroStars 1-0 Adelaide City, TK Shutter Reserve
Round 9: Raiders 1-3 MetroStars, Croatian Sports Centre
Round 10: MetroStars 0-2 Campbelltown City, TK Shutter Reserve

Preview:

Saturday night, league leaders West Adelaide host sixth-placed MetroStars in Round 11 of the South Australia National Premier League at Adelaide Shores Football Centre.

West Adelaide go into the match off the back of a 3-1 away win against Western Strikers, while MetroStars will aim to recover from a 2-0 home loss to Campbelltown City.

The home side will be looking to gain maximum points, with second-placed Adelaide Blue Eagles trailing them by just two points.

West Adelaide’s only loss of the season came back in Round 8 against Adelaide Comets, which Coach Joel Porter described as a wakeup call.

“Obviously there’s a little bit of confidence within the team. We had a bit of a wakeup call against Comets the other week when we lost 3-1, but we bounced back really well,” Porter said.

“The boys’ attitude at training has picked up; we’re really trying to get everyone to lift and keep the results coming.”

Porter spoke about his side’s preparation for Saturday, before stating that their clash against MetroStars is as important as every other game.

“It’s been a little bit difficult this week. We had a few injuries and a few boys not feeling well with winter coming, so it’s probably not been the best preparation, but in saying that, we’ve got a good squad and we’ve got boys that can come in and do a job when needed.

“Every week is important, every week we come up against a team that need to win because they haven’t won for a while or they’ve won 2, 3, 4 games in a row and they’re brimming with confidence.

“When you’re on top, everyone wants to beat you and overtake you to be at the top themselves, so we’ve got to understand that every week, each team is going to put everything on the line and get at us, and do whatever they need to do to knock us off that perch.”

Anything other than a win could result in MetroStars losing their place in the top six, with Adelaide City sitting just one point behind the Klemzig-based club.

MetroStars’ Lee Robertson said his side was looking to bounce back from their loss against Campbelltown City.

“It certainly wasn’t the result we set out for; to be honest, I thought we played quite well, but at the end of the day we didn’t come away with three points, so I guess it means nothing,” Robertson said.

“But we’ll just bounce back as we normally do. We’ll tackle this week like any other week and we’ll focus on getting the three points again.

“The boys are feeling good; it’s probably been a slow start for us but we’re slowly finding some form, apart from the slip up last week.”

Robertson said getting a win this weekend is extremely important.

“They are a very good team, but we are just taking it as the next round and we’ll prepare like we normally do; we’re going in there with confidence as we should.

“I think without getting ahead of ourselves, the next two weeks are extremely important, two very tough games, but we’ll take this challenge first this week, and we’ll be trying everything to make sure we come away with a maximum three points to stay with the pack.”

Friday May 2

Adelaide City v West Torrens Birkalla
7:30pm - Adelaide City Park, Corner Fosters Road & Hilltop Drive, OAKDEN 

Saturday May 3

Campbelltown City v Raiders
3pm - Steve Woodcock Sports Centre, Stradbroke Road, CAMPBELLTOWN

Cumberland United v Croydon Kings
3pm - A.A. Bailey Reserve, Winona Avenue, CLARENCE GARDENS 

Adelaide Blue Eagles v Western Strikers
3pm - Marden Sports Complex, 65 Lower Portrush Road, MARDEN

South Adelaide v Para Hills Knights
3pm - O'Sullivans Beach Sports Complex, Galloway Road, O'SULLIVANS BEACH

White City v Adelaide Comets
7pm - Frank Mitchell Park, 55 Minnis Street, WOODVILLE WEST