Finals Week 2 Preview: West Adelaide v Adelaide Blue Eagles
West Adelaide v Adelaide Blue Eagles
PlayStation 4 National Premier League South Australia Major Semi Final Second Leg
When: Sunday, August 39th Kick-Off 2:30pm
Where: Adelaide Shores Football Centre, West Beach Road, WEST BEACH
Preview:
West Adelaide and Adelaide Blue Eagles will look to leave it all on the pitch as they go head to head in the second leg of finals in the PlayStation 4 National Premier League South Australia.
The first leg ended all square, with goals from two of the league’s premier strikers in Kym Harris and Tom Briscoe, but West Adelaide hold a slight advantage over their opponents courtesy of the away goal rule.
It could have been more for the Minor Premiers given their dominating performance, if not for a colossal performance from Pedram Sourjani between the sticks for Blue Eagles.
Playmaker Ricardo Da Silva said it was disappointing for West Adelaide not to get more out of the game, but was happy to take the away goal advantage into the second leg.
“I think we dominated the whole game, we were dangerous and spent little time inside our own half.
“We’re disappointed that we didn’t capitalise, but at the end of the day we still have another chance and we still have the away goal, so I could say it’s a negative thing that we didn’t get a result but at the same time it’s still finals football.
“Teams play a bit different when its finals.”
Blue Eagles had nine first team players missing in the lead up to the first leg through illness, which lead to livewire Yvan Boyokino labelling the draw as a positive result.
“Last week for us was a good result because we had nine players who didn’t train for the whole week because they were sick, so being able to draw 1-1 at home and not to concede more goals was beautiful.
“You know we are Blue Eagles, and nobody wants this result again so going there this Sunday against West Adelaide means we have to do our job and hopefully it’s a good result.”
Although West Adelaide head into this week with the away goal, Da Silva said the side wouldn’t look to change its tactics.
“The away goal is important for us, but we don’t want to change the way we play and we are not going to change our tactics.
“We still want to get a result and play instead of defending, we can’t play like that so we have to go for it otherwise we can’t play.”
Despite having the away goal lingering over them, Boyokino said Blue Eagles aren’t phased.
“We’re not worried, we’re Blue Eagles and we’re known for our attacking play and scoring goals, so we have the ability to make up ground on them.
“This week we visit them, so we have the chance to grab an away goal as well.”
Boyokino made it clear he was raring for Sunday to come, and said excitement was high throughout the team.
“The feeling in the team is good, we’re all excited.
“As you can tell I’m really pumped because these are the types of games that we live for.
“We’ve got a good mix of experienced guys and the young ones in our team are really talented too, so we fancy our chances this week.”
Da Silva also stressed that excitement was surging throughout West Adelaide.
“It’s exciting, these players like playing at this level and a few of them could probably play a bit higher, so that’s what you want.
“You want these kinds of moments so you can enjoy the excitement; everyone is really pumped for this week.”
The key for a win this week for West Adelaide lays in the sides attacking play, according to Da Silva.
“If we can attack the way we normally attack and keep possession I think it’s only a matter of time until we score, but I think it will be very important to keep possession.”
For Boyokino, a brace would be a good start.
“A double from me.
“All good teams score goals at the start so we need a big performance from players like me, Kym Harris who is our leading goal scorer, and Alemayo Kebede.
“We have good players, we just have to do our own game and be really humble because West Adelaide are a really good squad and they have the advantage of the goal.
“So we just have to be humble, be smart and take our chances.”
Article by Brendan Simpkins
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