Football is back on Friday!
A good test for us first up I think. Adelaide struggled against CCM and it looks like their recent problems in front of goal haven’t been entirely solved.
Missing Redmayne and Grant for this game is pretty rough on us. You’d presume Heward-Belle would start and Retre would be on the right.
I had thought Heward-Belle was in one of the young socceroos camps but it looks like he isn’t (he was in September). From what I can see there’s a Olyroos camp next week in Qatar but he wasn’t named.
Looking at that camp in Qatar, Flottman will be out for us and Daniel Margush, Adelaide’s 2nd goal keeper, will be out as well.
Heward-Belle was excused from that camp so that he could get the more valuable experience of professional football.
That makes sense. I was sure I had seen him included at one point.
Adelaide signing a Chinese central defender who will available for our game apparently, any clue as to who it is?
Looking forward to the aggravating 4-2-2-2.
Slightly off-topic, but I hate the fact that the league starts during an international break. It was great last year when they finally took the breaks into account. There’s always a chance that the opening matches, those that should be hyped up by marketing, are watered down due to unavailable players. But also, the fact that there are games during the break also weakens the league’s image. Case in point: I was talking with a colleague on Friday, EPL fan, who asked when the A League starts. When I told him that it starts next week he paused and asked “wait, isn’t there an international break next weekend?” He went on to ask how anyone can take it seriously if the best players were likely to be unavailable, and said that it probably doesn’t matter because no one in the A-League would be good enough to play international football. 
its apparently a player from their owners other club Qingdao Red Lions.
Absolutely excited for the football season to finally be back soon.
Thank god football is back, so excited even though it’s an away game.
Any details on pub for those traveling?
Looks like Corica has confirmed Heward-Belle will start rather than the NPL player we have drafted in:
I wish Arnie had given Redders back to us purely for the #FFAconspiracy lols
Probably makes sense to give the player on our books the game. Thought he looked reasonable when he played for the mariners so hopefully he goes well
Imagine the hilarity had we asked FFA to postpone the season opening fixture due to them not recognising international breaks. I know we say it all the time, but that would’ve been peak A-League.
Also looked good in our final ACL game.
I agree , Football’s back on , we need to start with a good showing against the piss ants just to put them in their place.
Hanging for this. Fire up etc. Intresting to see how the new lads perform
More than anything, for me it’s vital that Barbarouses starts well. He gives us something different, or at least something different in Brosque’s absence, and we have him for 3 years. Also if he doesn’t do well, the grief from Melbourne fans will be unpleasant to say the least.
People usually congregate at the Governor near the stadium
My crystal ball says it’ll be a limp 2-1 loss. THB will be mostly fine, but we’ll still concede one howler and another that Redders might have otherwise kept out. We’ll get a late consolation after Tomic tees ALF up for a screamer, having previously been every bit as disjointed in attack as pre-season. There’ll be goo feasting despite it being an OK performance that might’ve seen us jag a 1-0 win had we not been fucked by Arnie’s selections and FFA’s scheduling. We’ll be firing in a few more weeks and still win the league.