How United will win the league.

[ade-qpr]

Still have my doubts on Perth as we have beaten them twice this season including cup final. Jan 5th will be very interesting in regards to finishing as high as we can.
Think us and MV are the front runners at the mo.
Finishing as high as we can is important as a home GF would be a massive advantage, some thing we have never had.

[ZANZIBAR]

even if mvfc get top spot they wont host the final so we have a good chance of hosting if we keep this form up

[Agostinho]

thinking about a comment up above, that Melbourne city are dark horses (which they are).. it emphasises how crap finals series really are. Imagine if Melbourne City won the grandfinal? they certainly arent the best team this year.

But it NEVER happens that way.

No team has ever won the Championship without finishing in the top 2.

9 grand finals, 5 times the winner was the premier and the other 4 they were the runner up.

In fact, only twice has a team even made the grand final without finishing in the top 2 - Central Coast in season 1 and Perth Glory a few years ago. And both of those teams finished 3rd.

The finals series is heavily weighted towards those who finish at the top, so we really need to finish top 2 to have a shot. I really don't fancy playing a prelim in either Perth or Melbourne...

[ZANZIBAR]

finals format? top two have first week off, bottom four kock out, lowest winner from week one plays premiers and then other plays second, winners play GF?

[EdDog]

finals format? top two have first week off, bottom four kock out, lowest winner from week one plays premiers and then other plays second, winners play GF?

Yes that's the new system started last season.

Used to be top two would play off home and away with winner straight to GF at home.

3 v 6 and 4 v 5 would also play and the winners of each would then play off. The winner of that match would then play the loser of 1 v 2 and then whoever won that would go to the GF.

Was HEAPS harder to make the GF from outside the top 2 in that system. Now it's a hell of a lot easier.

[mcjules]

After this round's results, I think our chances of winning a premiers plate are very unlikely. Anything but a win on Monday and it will require too many things to go our way to be credible.

Best to focus on finishing above Victory and securing an ACL spot

[shinAUFC]

So we are only 2 games behind perth who have shown very little against us in their 3 attempts at beating us.

The Nix are playing well but i think they are much like perth in that they put away their chances with quality strikes. Although they have played some good football they haven't really dominated teams so i would not be surprised if their purple patch slows down.

Victory are the ones who scare me the most, like us they have played well but struggled at times to put their chances away. We should not fear playing them but they need to actually lose for us to catch them.

The huge positive is we play all of these clubs once more so out destiny is in our hands IMO.

[EdDog]

My tip is that Burns will not get any or very little game time in the Asian Cup and this will completely ruin his good run of domestic form.

Hope he does play some part though, none more deserving of the fringe players.

[milan_7]

I just did one of those table predictor things and I got this:

1. Adelaide United 58 PTS
2. Perth Glory 55 PTS
3. Wellington Phoenix 54 PTS
4. Melbourne Victory 52 PTS

This title race is going to be goood.

[bpowell454]

I just did one of those table predictor things and I got this:

1. Adelaide United 58 PTS
2. Perth Glory 55 PTS
3. Wellington Phoenix 54 PTS
4. Melbourne Victory 52 PTS

This title race is going to be goood.

Yes please

[RedTide]

I just did one of those table predictor things and I got this:

1. Adelaide United 58 PTS
2. Perth Glory 55 PTS
3. Wellington Phoenix 54 PTS
4. Melbourne Victory 52 PTS

This title race is going to be goood.

... which completely confirms my opinion of the relative strengths of each of the top 4 sides. Amazing!

[RedTide]

I just went to the FFA's finals predictor and got this (deleting the GD column for clarity):

Ladder
P W D L F A PTS
A Utd 26 20 2 4 66 19 62
Glory 26 19 4 3 56 25 61
Phoenix 26 17 2 7 57 28 53
MV 26 13 7 6 51 35 46
Sydney 26 7 10 9 28 41 31
City 25 7 8 10 38 53 29
Finals cut-off
Roar 25 5 6 14 27 41 21
CCM 26 3 9 14 20 47 18
Wallys 24 3 8 13 23 42 17
Jets 26 2 8 16 23 58 14

... and we take over top spot after Rd 22. Sadney and MC wouldn't have a hope of progressing from 5th and 6th and I think that MV would have to face us in a preliminary final (presumably at Adelaide Oval), which means that they will be out; but please correct me if I am wrong on that finals structure. I would expect Perth to beat Wellington in WA, which would then mean an AU/Perth GF at Adelaide Oval and we all know how that would turn out.

For Brisbane, CCM, the Wallys and the Sopwith Camels, they should already be planning for next season.

It's a long, long way to go and anything could happen between now and April, eg. suspensions, injuries, asteroids falling on Carrusca's head etc, but it's encouraging to see that the fixtures for the second half of the season favour us over the other top 3 teams. Good times ahead!

[mcjules]

RedTide's has us winning every game from here on in and milan's only dropping 4 points. Love the optimism

[Stuckey]

I'd give that predictor a go but I'm rubbish at picking winners in HAL!

[RedTide]

RedTide's has us winning every game from here on in and milan's only dropping 4 points. Love the optimism

It's cold-hearted realism!