R11 Preview: Adelaide Comets v South Adelaide
Adelaide Comets v South Adelaide
PlayStation4 National Premier Leagues South Australia
When: Saturday, 14 May 2016 at 3.00 PM
Where: SA Athletics Stadium, Marjorie Jackson Nelson Drive, Mile End South
Teams:
Adelaide Comets: 2. Joseph Wright, 4. Zachary Hristodoulopoulos, 6. Jack Bladen, 7. Evan Kostopoulos, 8. Joseph Costa, 9. Steven Grelli, 10. Christopher Pepe, 11. Andreas Wiens, 13. Peter Eleftherakis, 14. Stephen Warner, 15. Oliver Zafiridis, 17. Zakariah Waters, 18. Theo Balomenos, 21. Alexander Woodlands, 22. Allan Welsh, 23. Davide Zerillo, 25. Harry Keramidas, 33. Dyan Newall, 77. El Qioin El Wali
South Adelaide: Philip Rideout, Jack Walker, 1. Addison Rodgers (GK), 2. Mitchell Sumnall, 3. Christopher Reed, 4. Robert Parker, 6. Jonathan Moore, 7. Alexander Rideout, 8. Sam Carmichael, 10. Jonathon Rideout, 11. Liam Molesworth, 12. Guy Miller, 13. Daniel Varma, 16. Brayden Micallef
Form:
Adelaide Comets: W D L
Round 8: Adelaide United 0-3 Adelaide Comets, Elite Systems Football Centre.
Round 9: Adelaide Comets 1-1 Adelaide Blue Eagles, SA Athletics Stadium.
Round 10: West Torrens-Birkalla 4-0 Adelaide Comets, Jack Smith Park.
South Adelaide: W D L
Round 8: South Adelaide 2-0 Croydon Kings, O’Sulivans Beach Sports & Community Centre.
Round 9: West Adelaide 2-2 South Adelaide, Adelaide Shores Football Centre.
Round 10: South Adelaide 0-3 Adelaide City, O’Sulivans Beach Sports & Community Centre.
Preview:
Adelaide Comets and South Adelaide will be looking for three points in Round 11 of the PlayStation 4 National Premier Leagues South Australia, when they meet at SA Athletics Stadium this Saturday.
Both teams lost last match day with Comets trounced 4-0 by West Torrens-Birkalla and South Adelaide going down 3-0 to league leaders Adelaide City.
Comets playmaker Christopher Pepe said that West Torrens “were hungry for a win”.
“West Torrens are a very well structured unit and we were quite aware of that,” Pepe said, “They pressed together well.”
“For some of the boys, they came out of blocks pretty quick – they obviously scored three goals in the space of ten minutes.
“To their credit, they did create some good chances.
“I’d probably put the first two goals down to defensive errors, but you can make excuses for 4-0 - it’s simply not good enough.”
Comets had a ferocious start to the season, but over the last couple weeks the Mile End side has lost three of its last five matches.
Pepe explains:
“Well look, first four games of the season we were on fire,” he said,” Still a new team.”
“We’re almost half way through the season now, so we can’t say we’re still trying to gel.
“I’m mean last week we had four key players out, but we just look to play some creative football.
“Our philosophy hasn’t really changed since the start of the season and there has been some inconsistencies.
“But like I said, we put that aside and focus on playing some good, attacking football.”
In regards to upcoming opponents South Adelaide, Pepe said:
“They’re travelling well,” he said, “I know they’ve signed some good players from around the place as well.”
“We expect nothing less – they give a 110 per cent from the word go.
“Regardless of us beating them 8-2 in the cup, it’s a different story and they’ve got some good results in the last couple of weeks as well.”
South Adelaide’s run of positive results, however, was halted by league leaders Adelaide City, which Daniel Varma described as “unlucky”.
“I think in the end 3-0 probably flattered them,” Varma said,” We take a lot of positives from the game.”
Varma proceeded describing the positives:
“We’ve got a couple of new players coming into the squad, which will add things,” he said.
“There’s good competition at South Adelaide now.
“We are very optimistic about the rest of the year and have a lot of positives from this year to date.”
Competition is fierce in the bottom half of the table with only four points separating 11th placed South Adelaide from sixth placed Adelaide Olympic.
“We have to be realistic,” Varma said,” We have 22 games and we’ve played ten.”
“So there’s (sic) 12 games to go - that’s a lot of points.
“And when you look at sides like Olympic, you can see that a run of four games can really change your position around.”
Varma continued:
“So I think at the moment for us, we’re focussing on good training and executing a game plan that Danny Graystone (coach) sets out,” he said.
“And we’re going week to week at the moment.
“How important these games will be? I guess we’ll need a chat on the 15th of August.”
On Saturday, Varma expects a confident Adelaide Comets side, after the 8-2 hiding South Adelaide received in the Westfield FFA Cup Qualifier six weeks ago.
“Well, I think Comets beat extremely convincingly in the cup six weeks ago,” he said
“And they’ll be very, very confident coming into this game; as I think any side would be having beaten a team and scored eight goals against a side.
“So our expectations for this game are simply play to our game plan and collectively as 13 to 14 players – including substitutions he may bring on – and play to the best of our ability.”
Written by Christopher Munker
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