The two match-ups are Queensland/Central Coast and Melbourne/Adelaide, but of course, you already knew that. I must say I was a little disappointed that Wellington didn’t make the finals, but alas, a poor start to the season left them with too much to do, and too much reliance on other teams. Sydney stuttered and spluttered towards an undeserving 6th, overtaking Wellington on goal difference. Perth barely got out of second gear and whilst Rukavytsya and Dadi fired, too many dropped games killed any chance for the Glory. The wooden spoon goes to to Newcastle, and let’s be frank: the less said about them the better; ‘fucking woeful’ is probably a reasonable assessment.

So then, to the remaining teams. On Friday night Central Coast have the task of stopping Queensland, and with van Dijk and McKay linking up rather well, this will be hard ask. CCM seem to be on a little bit of a freefall since Jedinak left, and without a win in the last three games, and only three in the last seven, I just can’t see them getting anything here. CCM are also missing D’Apuzzo and Heffernan, with Elrich still on the sidelines. Queensland, however, have an almost full squad and a near-on perfect run-in to this game, having only dropped points once in four games, a draw to Adelaide. Mind you, having said all that, I wouldn’t be surprised if CCM scrape a 1-0 win here, the playbook goes out the window when it comes to finals and teams that are normally average in the league show up for these crunch games (Liverpool, I’m looking at you here). I just think the Roar are going to be too strong in this game though, I’d say 2-0 to the away team.

Adelaide vs. Melbourne Victory. Firey doesn’t even being to describe it, these two will be clogging the shit out of each other for 180 minutes, regardless of the stakes. This could be a friendly game played in the middle of nowhere and there’d still be six red cards & three penalties. Melbourne have the bragging rights for this season so far, having won all three games against Adelaide, and pipping them to the top spot in the last few weeks of the season. Boasting a full squad full of prats players, I would be hard-pressed to see anything but the blue & white steamroller rolling on. Adelaide are missing Diego, Spagnuolo, Cornthwaite and maybe Cassio, prompting Vid-a-mar to consider Salley at centre-back. New signing Rostyn Griffiths comes into the squad, signed from Blackburn, is in the squad, as is Costanzo. I would love to say that I can see United winning this, but I just can’t. Mind you, with the experience gained in knock-out football from the ACL, and a packed Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide could cause an upset. I’d love to see Adelaide by two or three, but it’s more likely to be either team by one. I just hope it’s Adelaide.