AN OLD maxim has been rattling around my head this week – “Beware the wounded tiger”.
If ever there was a wounded tiger it would be Adelaide United. Despite the recent off field dramatics, the team from the city of churches is still a formidable outfit and Queensland Roar will have to be at their best to get a win at Hindmarsh on Saturday evening.
Thankfully, Queensland's players and coaching staff have been saying all the right things this week. Those age-old chestnuts of the sportsman's vocabulary have all been there. Craig Moore claimed that Queensland were in fact the underdogs. Liam Reddy and Massimo Murdocca stated that they are wary of an Adelaide with a point to prove. And Frank Farina rightly pointed out that Queensland are yet to beat Adelaide this season.
This sort of talk is to be expected. These are professional footballers and they know that you can never take anything for granted. I am not sure though how much of this rhetoric is being taken on board by the fans.
I have talked to many people this week and the common theme, from the dyed-in-the-wool tragics to the newly acquired bandwagoners, has been that they all expect Queensland to do a number on Adelaide. This may well happen, however we all know football can be a very funny game and that nothing is ever guaranteed.
In recent weeks, Queensland have been scoring more regularly than Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men and Adelaide's defence has shown all the fortitude of lumpy gravy. Yet this will count for little when the ref blows his whistle and the game commences. This match will be a seesawing, arm wrestle of a dogfight from the first minute.
The problem with a team in crisis is that they can be unpredictable. It is usually only a matter of time before the sun emerges from behind the storm clouds to once again shine upon them. Personally, I am not so sure that Adelaide's storm clouds are as menacing as some of my fellow Queensland fans believe.
Adelaide were only just beaten to the Premiership title, the title race going beyond points and goal difference to be decided by goals scored. A cursory glance at the table also reveals that Adelaide paid the price for being defensively focused, having conceded the least number of goals this season. This is surely something to be considered in their favour this weekend.
While their two-legged humiliation to Melbourne has raised questions about their Championship aspirations, it perhaps came as no surprise as they had lost all three previous meetings with Melbourne this season as well. Perhaps more tellingly was that throughout December and January, United only lost one match to A-League opposition (you guessed it, against Melbourne).
In this respect Queensland should be wary. In the same way Melbourne have had the wood on Adelaide this season, United have had the wood against Queensland. As Frank Farina pointed out, the boys in orange have been unable to defeat the Reds in version four. While Queensland certainly had the better of two of the games they were unable to land a killer blow, something that is certainly required in an elimination final.
While a confident fan is always more interesting and entertaining than a pessimistic one, I hope that my fellow fans do not judge the team too harshly if the result does not go our way this weekend. This is, in most respects, the same Adelaide team that did Australia so proud in the Champions League and finished ahead of us on the table.
Sure United may be down, but they are not out just yet. If Queensland Roar are to qualify for their first Grand Final appearance they will have to heed that sage advice I mentioned earlier - beware the wounded tiger (or should that be the wounded pissant).
