V

Match: Sydney FC vs. Queensland Roar
Date: Friday 25 January, 2008
Kick-off time: 8pm - Gates Open 6pm (local time)
Stadium: Sydney Football Stadium
Referee: Mark Shield
Assistant Referees: Ben Wilson & Matthew Cream
Fourth Official: Ben Williams

TV: Live & Exclusive Fox Sports 1 (www.foxsports.com.au) - Match broadcast commences 7:30pm AEDT (7:00pm ACDT, 6:30pm AEST, 5:30pm AWDT). Sky Sport 1 (www.skysport.co.nz) - Match broadcast commences 10:00pm NZDT.

Radio: 4BC 1116 AM (Brisbane) www.4bc.com.au

Where do we purchase tickets?
- Phone Ticketek on 132 849
- Web Sales www.ticketek.com.au
- All Ticketek Outlets

Come on Queensland.

Hope they beat Sydney in both legs.

Going for a 2 - 1 win to Qld for the first leg despite the absence of Tiatto.

Sydney got any injury problems?

Sydney FC: 1.Clint Bolton (gk), 2.Iain FYFE, 6.Tony POPOVIC (Captain), 7.Robbie MIDDLEBY, 8.Ruben ZADKOVICH, 10.Steve CORICA, 11.Brendon SANTALAB, 12.PATRICK, 13.Ben VIDAIC, 14.Alex BROSQUE, 15.Terry McFLYNN, 16 Mark MILLIGAN, 20.Ivan NECEVSKI (gk), 21.Adam BIDDLE, 22.JUNINHO, 23.Ufuk TALAY, 26.Brendan RENAUD, 29.Mark ROBERTSON *two to be omitted

In: Patrick (promoted), Ben Vidaic (promoted), Mark Robertson (promoted)
Out: Michael Bridges (returned to Hull City after loan spell ended)

Others Unavailable: Jacob Timpano (thigh - 4 weeks), Adam Casey (leg - 4 weeks), Michael Enfield (knee - 6 months).

Queensland Roar Squad: 30.Griffin McMASTER (gk), 2.Andrew PACKER, 4.Craig MOORE (Captain), 5.Josh McCLOUGHAN, 7.Michael ZULLO, 8.Massimo MURDOCCA, 9.Simon LYNCH, 11.REINALDO, 12.Tahj MINNIECON, 14.Ben GRIFFIN, 15.Matt McKAY, 16.Hyuk-Su SEO, 17.Mitch NICHOLS, 19.Sasa OGNENOVSKI, 22.Robbie KRUSE, 23.MARCINHO, 50.Justin PASFIELD (gk). *one to be omitted

In: Justin Pasfield (short-term injury replacement contract), Mitch Nichols (promoted), Hyuk-Su Seo (return from calf injury), Ben Griffin (promoted)
Out: Danny Tiatto (suspended – 2 weeks), Marko Sutalo (released from short-term contract).

Others Unavailable: Matt Ham (shoulder injury – out for season), Stuart McLaren (ankle injury – out for season), Liam Reddy (thumb injury – 1 week)

Impending stats, facts and trivia:
• Embarking on their third Hyundai A-League Finals Series, as opposed to Queensland Roar's first, Sydney FC's players have a vastly superior record in terms of Australian finals experience. Including matches played in the old NSL, the combined finals experience of Sydney FC's available squad is 145 matches, compared to just 48 previous finals matches for Queensland Roar players. Eight of Sydney's players have experienced more than six finals matches (Clint Bolton 33, Brendan Renaud 26, Robbie Middleby 14, David Zdrilic 14, Iain Fyfe 13, Steve Corica 11, Tony Popovic 8, Ufuk Talay 7), while just one Roar player (Andrew Packer 28 ) has played more than six finals matches.
• Based on Sydney-Queensland head-to-head results over the past two seasons (4 draws in 6 matches), a draw may well be the final outcome of this fixture. In fact, the percentage of draws in the Hyundai A-League this season is the highest ever recorded in 31 regular seasons of the NSL and Hyundai A-League. Exactly one-third, or 33.3% of matches (28 out of 84) ended in draws in the Hyundai A-League 2007/08; the previous highest percentage of draws in an Australian national league season was 33.0% (1991/92 NSL). Overall, the percentage of drawn matches in NSL/Hyundai A-League regular season matches up until this season (almost 5800 matches) was 25.1%.

Taken from A-league site:
Popovic wants a good start
Tony Popovic has made no secret of his side's intentions ahead of Friday's opening leg of the do-or-die Minor Semi Final against Queensland Roar - to win in front of the Sydney FC faithful.

Sydney FC must travel to Brisbane for the return match in a fortnight and the former Socceroo says it is vital his side take the advantage into the away leg.

But while a win is a must, Popovic said his side would not depart too far from the style of play that has brought them much success in the latter stages of the Hyundai A-League season.

"I think we'll just stick to the same game plan and you can never look too far ahead of yourself, it's a two-leg match and whatever happens here, I expect it to be tight and both sides will probably feel they're still in it in the away leg," he said.

Taken from Sydney FC site:
Sydney FC Captain Tony Popovic believes the early-season troubles at the club has helped shape the steely resolve that he believes can help the team progress through the final series.

“We had some very tough times earlier this season and that has helped strengthen our mental attitude and belief,” Popovic said. “Through the tough times we stuck together as a playing group and that has allowed us to come out a much better and mentally stronger team.

I predict sydney to win 3-0.
They are going for an attacking style in this game so hoping it does them justice and my prediction comes true lol.

This is tonight isn't is? 15 minutes to half-time and no updates as of yet?? I predict 3-1 SFC

at half time the scores are still deadlocked at 0-0

How did it finish? Still 0-0??

0-0 FT.

Garbage game.

I don't think I wanna read a match-report that sounds like a [beep!] game...

game just finished
yes the score still stayed at 0-0

i dunno if it was that bad nufc the second half was pretty energetic

Don't think there was 3 passes strung together during that second half.

Juninho was good that was about it. Brosque missed some absolute sitters!

Craig Moore and Griffin McMaster were probably Qld's best.

Qld to win 2 - 1 in the second leg.

yer brosque had a shocker.

Juhnino had a good game that run in the first half was great

What do you expect, its only the A-League.

But i do hope Sydney can string a winning performance together in the second leg!