A-League prediction - Wellington Phoenix juggernaut to roll on

The 2009/10 A-League Preliminary Final between Sydney FC and Wellington Phoenix is upon us.

The penultimate match of another exciting season has arrived with the Sydney Football Stadium playing host to an expected big crowd as the Sky Blues and Phoenix wrestle for a chance to take on the Melbourne Victory in the Grand Final.

As is the norm at this stage of the season, everyone puts in their two bobs’ worth as to why one team can win and why the other can’t and here at tribalfootball.com we are no exception.

I believe the Wellington juggernaut will roll on despite being away from Westpac Stadium and up against a determined Sydney outfit who are well-drilled by their coach, Czech tactician Vitezslav Lavicka.

The Sky Blues have won many games 1-0 this season as their defence, consisting of Sung-Hwan Byun, Simon Colosimo, Stephan Keller and Shannon Cole, regularly cuts out opposition advances but I think they are now ripe for the picking, especially after conceding four goals in two games against the Victory.

Wellington’s attacking line which includes star striker Paul Ifill, Chris Greenacre, Eugene Dadi, Tim Brown and Leo Bertos among others can turn around the 1-0 loss in Palmerston in Round 18.

Both teams came through 120 minutes last week as their semi-finals went to extra time and it was the Phoenix who finished the strongest of the two sides despite a handful of their more important players coming back from international duty just days prior to the win over the Newcastle Jets.

Sydney lost concentration to allow Melbourne striker Archie Thompson to equalise in the 114th minute and that few seconds put the reigning champions straight into the decider where they eagerly await their opponents.

Plenty has been written about the Preliminary Final this week with a majority of critics tipping Sydney with the home ground advantage being the overriding factor but Wellington have succeeded against the odds all season and I believe it will be the same at the final whistle tomorrow. Whether that will be at the end of 90 minutes or 120, I’m not sure but I feel the Phoenix have more to prove than Sydney and the exciting brand of football they play at times can cut open the Sky Blues defence, just like the Victory have done the past two outings.

The resurgence of Manny Muscat as a holding midfielder could cause problems for whoever Lavicka plays in the ‘Steve Corica’ role behind the strikers, most likely to be Mark Bridge, and the whole of the Phoenix defence has been hard to get past in recent times with goalkeeper Liam Reddy, skipper Andrew Durante, Ben Sigmund, Jon McKain, Troy Hearfield and Tony Lochhead all in top form. They could prove to be too tough for Alex Brosque and John Aloisi to break through.

I sense Ifill is the key for the Phoenix as most would think but if the Sky Blues don’t pay enough respect to vice-captain Tim Brown whilst focusing too much on Ifill, then it could spell trouble.

The New Zealand international has netted on eight occasions this season and is the Tim Cahill of the A-League with late runs into the box and powerful headers beating most keepers.

Overall, the Phoenix are in slightly better form with Ricki Herbert doing wonders for New Zealand football in the past few months and I’m sure their travelling fans will be in full voice as I predict an upset and a Melbourne Victory v Wellington Phoenix Grand Final.

Verdict: Wellington to win 2-1.