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The Adelaide United coach Marcelo Carrusca is the only member of the League table who won’t be involved in the Thursday night game, in which the Reds take on Newcastle United.
As has been the case over the past decade, the Roar are favourite to finish the season on top of the table, with an injury-time goal from Matt McKay securing a late 1-0 win against Wanderers on Saturday.
That’s been enough to keep Wanderers coach Tony Popovic honest.
“The only disappointing thing we have right now is that I wouldn’t like to miss a game as a coach of a football club,” he said.
“You never think of not being there for the big one, when we are playing away from home and I am a big football fan myself.
“I think it’s very exciting, the way the season is shaping up. It’s probably going to come down to the last game, we will have to wait and see.”
While both his A-League teams look to be heading towards the championship race in equal form, Popovic believes the middle of the field is the most impressive part of the league, especially the teams he thinks need to improve.
“For sure, the top two teams are in a great position. When you look at the teams below the top two, I think the middle is going to have the most significant impact on the finals,” he said.
“There is some big teams in that middle, and the eighth and ninth are quite stable.
“I like the football of Western Sydney and Brisbane, but I would like to see a bit more variation, more creativity, change in teams’ formation and formations. I think Adelaide also has got a tendency to play safe.”
These “safe” footballers are struggling to keep fans onside, and with teams starting to spend again, no team will have a problem attracting interest from the play-offs.
“A big problem for me is when the crowd understands the team isn’t in any danger. In Australia, some of the football, I personally don’t want to watch football,” Popovic said.
“I want to watch exciting football. And when they don’t know who the team is that is playing, they usually don’t like to watch the team that they know aren’t in any danger.”
