1. Home comforts?
Sydney's away record is incredible. Graham Arnold has yet to taste defeat on the road in the regular season – the Grand Final shellacking by Melbourne Victory the only blip. However, 'Fortress Allianz' has not provided the same joy for the Sky Blues. Four wins and a negative goal difference last season effectively cost them the Premiers' Plate.
This season hasn’t exactly been stellar either, with a laboured draw against Melbourne City and the last gasp derby success. Sydney need to make life tough for visiting teams.
2. Roar need a fast start
Sydney start slow, and finish like a train. There’s no doubting Sydney’s excellent fitness levels under the tutelage of Andrew Clark but it does take them some time to get going. If Roar capitalise on this they can put the game to bed early.
3. Battle of the flanks
Check out the average positions of Sydney fullbacks Seb Ryall (2) and Rhyan Grant (23) against Central Coast Mariners last weekend.
This is the same story all season. Full backs that basically play as wingers. Arnie pushes them high and wide all day long, pressing and always offering an attacking option.
The danger against Roar for Sydney is the threat posed by the Killer B’s 2.0 – Broich and Borrello. Thomas won’t trouble Ryall for pace, but the same can’t be said on the Brisbane right, with Roar's October Young Player of the Month in fine form.
And with Jamie Maclaren lurking, the Roar have an attacking triumvirate that can rock Sydney.
4. The Smeltz conundrum
Midway through last season it seemed we’d seen the last of the prolific Kiwi with a move to Malaysia in the offing. But the departure of Marc Janko changed the dynamic and Smeltz stayed on, as a the focal point of the new look Sky Blues attack.
However, Sydney's attack is coughing and spluttering so far this term. An attack, yet to really reach any great heights.
Smeltz grabbed a welcome goal in Gosford last week but he has appeared a shadow of his deadly self, often dragged deeper than he’d like as Sydney try to find the right way to mould Filip Holosko, Milos Ninkovic and Smeltz into the same effective unit that Janko, Bernie Ibini and Alex Brosque were last season.
5. The metronomes
They set the tone of the match and the tempo of the game. The controllers The 6’s. For Sydney it should be the Serb Milos Dimitrijevic – so controlled and impressive last season but a little off colour this year. For Brisbane it is Corona. Forget the ‘amusing' name, this is a serious footballer.
He is the distribution king for John Aloisi’s increasingly confident side. A calming influence, who makes the difficult look very very simple, breaking up, moving on, setting up.
Whoever wins this battle may well decide which side take the three points.
