Adelaide United defender, Ben Warland, says anything can happen when Finals football returns to Coopers Stadium on Saturday evening.
The Reds will face Central Coast Mariners in the first leg of a Semi Final double-header winless against their eastern opponents in the 2022/23 season.
But this has not deterred Warland and his United teammates, Carl Veart’s sides welcoming the chance to sink a flying Mariners.
Playing in the Semi Finals:
“We would have loved to have finished second, obviously an Asian spot up for grabs, which we let slip through our grasp.
“But we’re (still) in the Semi Finals.
“It’s two legs, and no real advantage, I don’t think, for Central Coast.
“They’ve had a week off and maybe a bit fresher, but we’ve had that continuity of games.
“And we’re in good form at the moment, keeping a clean sheet, scoring a few goals, and had a lot of opportunities (against Wellington).
“So we’re looking to keep that up on Saturday.”
Previous Mariners meetings:
“I think we’ve just been a little bit off our game every time we’ve played.
“Last regular season game we were too deep as a back four and we let the lines get too far apart.
“We got a bit isolated at times and they capitalised and scored some pretty good.
“But we’ve worked a lot on that from that game.
“Even this morning, we do video every matchday minus two and we shape up how we want to press, how we want to play out, so hopefully we can right those wrongs.”
Do-or-die:
“We can’t be off our game at all.
“It’s obviously do or die this clash, so we need to have a good performance, a good lead, going into the away game.
“Finals is a different animal, anything can happen.
“I think it’s nearly a sellout on Saturday night, so we will have a packed Coopers Stadium, which is awesome.
“(Our fans) really are our twelfth man and they get us over the line when we need it.”
Match details:
Isuzu UTE A-League 2022/23 Season – Semi Final (First Leg)
Adelaide United vs Central Coast Mariners
Saturday, 13 May 2023, Kick-off: 7:15pm (ACST)
Coopers Stadium
Isuzu UTE A-League 2022/23 Season – Semi Final (Second Leg)
Central Coast Mariners vs Adelaide United
Saturday, 20 May 2023, Kick-off: 7:15pm (ACST)
Central Coast Stadium
