Adelaide United hope for hat-trick against Roar

Adelaide United will be looking for their third win in as many games when they take on the Brisbane Roar this Saturday at Hindmarsh Stadium.

The Reds are undefeated since the return of prodigal son John Kosmina to the helm but United’s coach is under no illusion his team are in for an easy game.

“Brisbane are always dangerous. Even the games that they’ve lost, they played well enough to win,” Kosmina said.

A large factor in Adelaide’s return to winning ways has been the interplay between the attacking trio of Bruce Djite, Sergio van Dijk and Dario Vidosic.

United have scored five goals in their past two Hyundai A-League fixtures and Kosmina feels the strength of his front three can cause headaches for the opposition on any given matchday.

“Even when they’re not on song they’re still capable of giving their opposition something to think about, position-wise and also in terms of their individual ability,” Kosmina said.

Talismanic striker van Dijk was singled out for praise by his coach after breaking a seven-game goal drought on Wednesday against the Heart.

“We saw what Serg is like, he holds the ball up better than anyone else in the league,” Kosmina said.

“You look at how he rolled Curtis Good for his second goal… you don’t want to leave yourself in a one-on-one situation on the edge of the box with Serg.”

Adelaide midfielder Fabian Barbiero is wary of a Brisbane backlash after they were denied victory on Wednesday, an eightieth minute penalty tying the game at 3-3 and earning Perth and the Roar a point each.

“They’re a good side and I think they can bounce back,” Barbiero said.

“I think it’s going to be a cracker game this week so hopefully the fans can come out and get right behind us.”

United’s coach laughed off talk of finals football despite the Reds’ turnaround in form, climbing off the foot of the Hyundai A-League Ladder just three weeks after Kosmina took over from Dutchman Rini Coolen.

“We’ve won three games,” he said.

“Maybe we can talk about it [finals] at the end of this month, which might be a more realistic appraisal of where we are and a more realistic time to make that judgement.”

The Reds head into Saturday’s clash against the Roar with an unchanged line-up and will hope to erase memories of their 7-1 defeat at Suncorp earlier this season.