This week marks round 20 in the A League with only three points separating the top four teams and seven games left. All teams are still mathematically in the equation for the final series and eight out of the ten teams are still competing for this year’s minor premiership.
Stats like this make the A-league one of the hardest leagues to predict a winner, unlike the one horse race of the Scottish Premier League or the three titans in the Spanish top division (Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid). Which leaves two questions to be answered, who will win the A-league Final series and who will win the minor premiership?
Top of the league, Perth Glory, haven’t warranted their name of late, having not won a fixture since the 2nd of January. Second placed Melbourne Victory blew their four game unbeaten streak on the weekend to fourth place and fellow minor premiership contenders Wellington Phoenix. Phoenix are fairing pretty well only losing one of their past five games, but that was to bottom of the table Western Sydney Wanders handing them their first win of the season. Third place Adelaide United sit above Wellington Phoenix only by one goal, which is mostly due to their 7-0 demolition of Newcastle Jets. Finally sitting fifth, only four points off the league leaders is the prolific Sydney FC who have scored an amazing 19 goals in 5 games mostly attributed to the clinical finishing of Marc Janko and Shane Smeltz.
Although not a real threat to the minor premiership, Melbourne City maybe the dark horse for the A League title with their commanding 3-1 win over Adelaide United last Friday. This includes first goals for their two new signings Socceroo hero Josh Kennedy and Singapore International Muhammad Safuwan bin Baharudin signifying the gelling of the team. While they continue to bolster their ranks with ex-Lyon striker/winger Harry Novillo who also boasts French under 17 and 19 caps.
