Same Again For Final

Saturday 13th Feb, 2010

The Brisbane Strikers are likely to take a virtually unchanged squad of players into Sunday night’s Brisbane Roar Silver Boot Final against Brisbane Premier League club Souths United.

While the young Strikers outfit has steadily improved throughout the tournament, disposing along the way of three teams heavily favoured to figure in the top half of the BPL table in 2010, they have not yet been able to call upon their full roster of players.

That is likely to remain the case on Sunday with midfielder/forward Chris Di Sipio, who has not played since the first half against Capalaba in Round One, still unavailable with a foot injury and Jordan Farina still on duty with the Brisbane Roar Youth team until the end of the month.

Matija Simic, who has had an outstanding tournament playing either as a stopper or midfielder, is the only other player coach Stuart McLaren considers to be in slight doubt for the match, while midfielder Michael Angus will definitely be available again after overcoming an ear infection.

In contrast to their last two games, against Rochedale Rovers and Olympic FC, the Strikers are likely to go into the contest as favourites. While the Strikers have been ‘surprise packets’ for some observers, particularly given that they have so many new faces this season and are still some six weeks away from the kick-off of their QSL season, the same could probably be said for Souths, who had been generally ignored by most pundits speculating on the likely finalists in this year’s BPL.

Both teams have had an unbeaten run to the final. In fact, the record of both teams is extremely similar, with both having registered a win on penalties (the Strikers over Capalaba and Souths over Brisbane Wolves) and both having a high-scoring win to their credit (the Strikers 7-0 over the Ipswich Knights and Souths 8-0 over Brisbane Force). The Strikers finished their group phase with a 15-5 ratio of goals for and against, with Souths recording a slightly more impressive 16-4. The Strikers accounted for Olympic FC 2-0 in their semi-final on Tuesday night, while Souths squeezed past Peninsula Power 2-1.

If the statistics don’t lie they add up to a closely fought final. Kick-off will be at 7.00 pm at Luxury Paints Stadium, Richlands, preceded by the third vs fourth playoff between Olympic and Power at 5.00 pm.