Super Saturday in SA

Round 5 of the Westfield FFA Cup Preliminary Rounds in South Australia kick off tomorrow, with three of the four matches to be played.

State League 1 side Western Strikers host Premier League club MetroStars, Croydon Kings are home to Campbelltown City and Adelaide Comets welcome Adelaide Blue Eagles. All matches kick-off at 2:30pm.

Round 5 wraps up on Wednesday when Cumberland United host Port Adelaide Pirates at AA Bailey Reserve (kick-off 7:00pm).

 

Adelaide Comets v Adelaide Blue Eagles

A place in the semi-finals of the South Australian leg of Westfield FFA Cup qualifying is on the line as Adelaide Comets welcome Adelaide Blue Eagles to Santos Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Blue Eagles will be looking for their first Cup finals berth since 2011 where they lost on penalties to Western Strikers, while Comets have their sights set on their maiden appearance in a Cup final.

In the Round of 16, the home side easily took care of business against State League 2 side Fulham United, while Blue Eagles progressed at the expense of last year’s runners-up Adelaide City.

City has a reputation of being Cup specialists, holding the record for most titles with 16.

Despite this, Blue Eagles’ Marco Balsamo does not believe that the Marden based club are now the team to beat in the competition.

“Adelaide City have excelled in the cup for the past few seasons so knocking them out was great, but at the same time there are still plenty of sides left, including Comets, who will be very tough to beat.”

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Western Strikers v MetroStars

“Believe and Live the Dream” these will be the words echoing through the Western strikers’ change rooms this week, as they prepare to take on MetrosStars at Carnegie Reserve in the Quarter Final of the Westfield FFA Cup South Australia Qualifying Competition. 

The Western suburb battlers come up against a MetroStars side that after a slow and disarrayed start to the season, have started to find some much needed form and will present a real challenge for the State league side. 

Strikers have been hampered for the past month by injuries and will welcome back their captain Michele Lastella for what will be his first game in the starting eleven for some time. Lastella will be a good support for talented midfielders Jordan Spadavecchia and Michael Russo. 

The Metro defense led by Michael D’Aloisio will need to keep a close eye on Adrian D'Alfonso. The attacking midfielder has been turned into a central striker by coach Brenton Hiern this season with great results. D’Alfonso has displayed good goal sense in recent games, having scored eight goals in eleven games this season. 

On the other side of the ledger MetroStars’ strikers Doni Pollock and Jonathan Negus will have enough supply of the ball from their talented midfielders to pose a big headache for the Strikers defence.

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CLICK HERE for the details for all four fixtures.