It’s another quick turnaround for our Jets as we take on Adelaide on Sunday in our third successive away match with the hope of bouncing back to the winners’ circle as we pass the halfway point of the season.
Our last outing saw Wellington Phoenix steal the three points late despite holding 66% of possession and firing 31 shots at goal throughout the contest.
On the other side of the fence, Adelaide are currently sitting in third place having collected points from 12 of their 16 matches, posing a challenging test for our side.
As it stands, our side sit six points out from the top six and will be cautious of keeping as in touch as they can to those above them – a win this weekend will go a long way to that.
Here’s the full breakdown of Wednesday night’s clash:
ADELAIDE UNITED V NEWCASTLE JETS
Date: Sunday 13 March 2022
Kick-off: 7:15pm
Venue: Coopers Stadium
How to Watch: Paramount+
HEAD-TO-HEAD
Played: 49
Jets: 14
Draws: 13
Adelaide: 22
HAPPY 50TH
This weekend will be our 50th clash with Adelaide and it’s been a hotly contested fixture between the two teams over the years.
Interestingly enough, Adelaide were our first ever opponent back in 2005, and since then there’s been many thrilling battles, including our clash earlier in the year at McDonald Jones Stadium.
United will be just the third club that we’ve reached the milestone against, and in while it’s been an even fight previously, in recent years the Reds have begun to take an upper hand.
Over our past 10 encounters, United have managed seven wins to our one, which includes three consecutive victories – a trend our team will be out to put an end to this Sunday.
ON THE REBOUND
It’s been a fight for consistency so far this season, which has been especially difficult given COVID interruptions of the league scheduling.
Our loss during the week stands as one of the only occurrences that we’ve lost two in a row – the other time coming against Adelaide on the back of a seven-week pause from football – and our team will be confident that’ll be the only time we experience that again this season as we look to regather momentum.
The Reds have some momentum of their own though after defeating Central Coast and Perth in the past two weekends but possess similar statistics to our side over the course of the season so far – both have scored 1.6 goals a game, however the key difference is our defence with our team conceding 1.9 a game, compared to the Reds’ 1.3.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Daniel Penha (Newcastle Jets)
Our creative midfielder continues to be a spark in our attacking raids and picked up another assist during after laying Boumal in for his goal.
The Brazilian is now on nine assists already for the season, which is just two off the A-League record set by a collection of players in Leroy George, Marco Rojas and Aaron Mooy.
In addition to his assist, Penha also landed himself on the scoresheet and fired away several dangerous shots as well.
His creativity and agility in the final third will again be looked upon as we attempt to penetrate Adelaide’s defence this Sunday.
Hiroshi Ibusuki (Adelaide United)
Ibusuki joined the Reds just after the commencement of the season and made an instant impact, scoring his first for the club just a day after signing.
Since then, he’s played eight more matches and found the back of the net a total of four times, proving himself to be a top-level poacher in and around the box.
His tall frame also makes him a danger from aerial balls, and he proved that in our last meeting securing the winning goal in stoppage time and breaking our hearts in the process.
Regardless of whether he starts on the pitch, or on the bench, when he’s on the field, our defence will need to be strong and alert of his presence.
STATS & FACTS
Over the years, Coopers Stadium (Hindmarsh) hasn’t been a favourable destination for us. We’ve only managed five wins from our 25 games played there, however our last win over United was in fact played away from home, where we picked up a 3-0 win.
Angus Thurgate will be the only player in the current squad who featured that day, however Jordan Elsey was a Red in that game.
If Taylor Regan features for us on Sunday it’ll also be the first time he’s played against his former Club since leaving back in 2018.
Both teams love scoring goals against one another too, especially in recent years. In our past 12 encounters with Adelaide, there’s only been two games where only one, or neither team have scored. There’s a strong chance for goals in this one too if the trending stat of ‘Expected Goals’ are anything to go off – Adelaide are second in the league with a total of 28.1, while our Jets are fourth with 22.7 expected goals.
It’ll be a battle of possession in this one too as both sides tend to keep the ball as much as they can. Our Jets lead the league with an average of 58%, while Adelaide are third in the league with 53%.
