KENNEDY AND CO. ARRIVE

Josh Kennedy and Nagoya Grampus have arrived on the Central Coast. On a mission to snatch and grab three points for their Asian Champions League campaign, Grampus will start favourites.

Despite only managing a draw in their first game of the Champions League Grampus have the smarts to beat a Central Coast team whose form is heading in the wrong direction at the wrong time. The Mariners got their Champions League campaign off to a creditable draw in China, but Tianjin aren’t setting the world on fire in the Chinese Super League. With one win in their last five the Mariners have fallen upon tough times due to the loss of Rostyn Griffiths to Ghuangzhou R&F, Matt Simon to Chunnam Dragons, and others on national duty (Olyroos). While the Mariners have youngster Tom Rogic, he doesn’t add the same mettle as Griffiths and this is where the game is won.

Grampus have started the J-League with a win against highly rated Shimizu S-Pulse (including Alex Brosque) and a 3-2 defeat away to FC Tokyo. Fans of Brisbane Roar can tell you about the quality of FC Tokyo whom seem capable of emulating the deeds of the 2011 Kashiwa Reysol outfit. Reysol won the J-League in their return to the top flight. Anyways, Grampus should have to many guns with the usual suspect Kennedy, Tulio and the speedy Nagai the players to watch out for.

Meanwhile Adelaide United are set to rock the Asian Champions League tonight when they face Gamba Osaka. Gamba lost their opener at home to Pohang Steelers 3-nil. The new coaching staff will be feeling the heat if Gamba don’t get the points, but they will have to find goals against an Adelaide outfit set to play on the counter. This one looks tough, and not even Endo can make the task look easy.

My best wishes go out to Brisbane Roar for if they continue to employ the predictable pass it out from the back style, they will get ambushed by Beijing tonight. Beijing go into the match with winning form, after toppling high spending Shanghai Shenhua (Joel Griffiths, Nicholas Anelka) in the Chinese Super League over the weekend. This hasn’t deterred Brisbane manager Ange Postecoglou though, “The important thing is that we play our style of football and not to get into a negative mindset worrying about whether we win, draw or lose.”