PlayStation4 National Premier Leagues South Australia

Round 18: Adelaide Blue Eagles v West Adelaide

When: Saturday, July 16 2016 at 3 PM.
Where: Marden Sports Complex, Lower Portrush Road, Marden.

Teams:

Adelaide Blue Eagles: Antoni Panagoulias, Alex Solari, Liam Mccabe, Ilario Spano, Hamish Mccabe, 1. Michael Catford, 2. Adam Harris, 4. Christopher Atsikbasis, 5. Chris Christofilos, 7. Jean-Claude Boyokino, 8. Damien Crettenden, 9. Fortunato Filletti, 10. Evan Kounavelis, 13. Alemayo Kebede, 14. John Solari, 15. Samuel Tesfagabr, 16. Matthew Charalambous, 17. Matthew Dawber, 18. Mattia Perrotti, 20. Anthony Dimas, 66. Pedram Sourjani

West Adelaide: 1. Daniel Atkins, 4. Jack Yull, 5. Robin Lippett, 6. Elias Vlassis, 7. Joseph Wright, 10. Ricardo Da Silva (C), 11. Thomas Briscoe, 13. Hikaru Tanaka, 14. Nathan Andijanto, 15. Sam Shoemark, 17. Perry Mitris, 18. Yiannis Nestoras, 19. John Karatzas, 20. Tony Hatzis, 21. Toshihiro Hara (GK), 22. Michael Alexandrou, 23. Mitchell Nicholson

Form:

Adelaide Blue Eagles: W L W

Round 15: South Adelaide 1-2 Adelaide Blue Eagles, O’Sullivan’s Beach Sports & Community Centre.
Round 16: Adelaide Blue Eagles 1-2 MetroStars, Marden Sports Complex.
Round 17: Croydon Kings 0-3 Adelaide Blue Eagles, Polonia Reserve.

West Adelaide: W L W

Round 15: West Adelaide2-1 Raiders, Adelaide Shores Football Centre.
Round 16: Campbelltown City 3-2 West Adelaide, Steve Woodcock Sports Centre.
Round 17: West Adelaide 2-1 Adelaide United, Adelaide Shores Football Centre.

West Adelaide could jump into the top six with a win over Adelaide Blue Eagles at Marden Sports Complex in Round 18 of the PlayStation4 National Premier Leagues South Australia this Saturday.

The West Beach-based side sits two points outside the top six with 24 points, and a win could see West Adelaide trade places with the sixth placed MetroStars.

For West Adelaide forward John Karatzas, the playoffs are very much the main goal.

“Of course it is, ”Karatzas said,” we’ve got five games left and our goal was to end the season on 39 points.”

“And that was six wins from the last six games - so we’ve got the one!

“So we’re looking to win our next five games, that’s the goal that we’ve set.

“And if we do win the next five, we’ll reach that 39 point mark; so we definitely want to make the finals, and we want to come as high on the ladder as we can.”

According to Karatzas, the one area that needs improvement, and could help West Adelaide reach the 39 point mark, is finishing.

“I just think one of our main areas is finishing – finishing our chances,” he said.

“Because we do create chances, we’ve got a lot of quality in our squad and we’ve just, at times, lacked that killer instinct maybe, just to finish the chances we do create.

“So I think we’ll be looking to really start being more lethal with our goal scoring opportunities.”

Karatzas is confident that West Adelaide can notch up a second consecutive win against the Adelaide Blue Eagles, and continue their march into the top six.

“We’re confident,” he said,” we can definitely go down to Marden and get the three points.”

“They are a good squad. We know Blue Eagles; they’ve got some good individual players.

“So we’ll have to be switch on.

“Preparation is the same as any other week; there’s no special consideration for any team.

“We’ll just stick to our structure and hopefully we’ll get the three points.”

Also looking for a second consecutive win are the Adelaide Blue Eagles.

However, consecutive wins have been hard to come by this season, which has given Yvan Boyokino reason for concern.

“It’s always a concern because we were doing quite well – you know, playing against MetroStars – we were having a good game, then we conceded a second goal because we were not focused,” Boyokino said.

“This game here (Croydon) we played really well and we kept the focus, and we kept being focused, and we didn’t concede any goals, which is really good.”

Boyokino is the Blue Eagles’ leading scorer this season with 13 goals, which is a respectable haul for a winger.

Having already equalled last season’s tally, Boyokino is looking to add more goals to his name.

“Of course I’m a winger, not a striker, but I play quite offensive,” he said.

“I had a target this year, which was 13 – last year I scored 13 goals.

“But my aim is always to go better and better, because if I score 13 last year, I can score more this year, which I’m doing.

“It’ll be the same next year; always going higher and higher.

“I don’t have a number in mind, but I just want to go as high as possible.”

The goal-scoring winger is wary of West Adelaide, having lost against them in last year’s grand final.

“West Adelaide is honestly one of the more dangerous teams in this league,” he said.

“We and West Adelaide made the grand final last year, and they are always dangerous to play against.

“It’s the kind of game that people need to come out and watch, because you’ve got two teams that play the opposite kind of soccer, where they like to keep the ball and we go and counter attack.

“They are a really good team that I respect a lot and I can’t wait to play them.”

Written by Christopher Munker