Adelaide United vs Central Coast Mariners Prediction: Teenager to step up to the plate at Coopers

Adelaide United were the only Australian A-League Men's side not in action during last weekend's opening round, but the Reds begin their campaign on Saturday (07:00, TNT Sports 5) against reigning champions Central Coast Mariners at Coopers Stadium.

Below you can find my Adelaide United vs Central Coast Mariners prediction, complete with all the latest team news and match odds, ahead of this South Australia encounter.

Team News

Adelaide lost several key players in the off-season, notably 18-year-old wonderkid Nestory Irankunda, who joined German giants Bayern Munich in a move agreed last year. Irankunda scored eight times and registered six assists for the Reds in 2023/24, and his pace and trickery on the wings will be a big miss for Carl Veart's side.

Last season's 15-goal top scorer, Japanese striker Hiroshi Ibusuki, also left - for Western United - after failing to agree terms on a new deal.

Fellow first-teamers Musa Toure (Clermont), Nick Ansell (Nakhon Ratchasima), Lachlan Barr (Perth Glory), Ben Halloran, Harry Van Der Saag and Ben Warland (all Brisbane Roar) joined Irankunda and Ibusuki out the exit door.

Ben Folami (Melbourne Victory), Jordan Elsey (East Bengal), Archie Goodwin (Newcastle Jets), Dylan Pierias (Western Sydney Wanderers) and Bart Vriends (Sparta Rotterdam) have all come the other way as Veart reshapes his Reds squad.

Vriends, Luke Duzel, Panashe Madanha and Fabian Talladira are all out of this weekend's clash.

Football Odds

The Central Coast Mariners handed a debut to 18-year-old goalkeeper Dylan Peraic-Cullen in their A-League Men's opener against Melbourne Victory and the teenager kept his place for Tuesday's 3-2 defeat to Shanghai Port in the AFC Champions League.

Off-season signings Lucas Mauragis, Vitor Feijao, Alfie McCalmont and Sabit Ngor made their league debuts for the Mariners in the goalless draw with MVC - the first three all starting in Gosford.

Head coach Mark Jackson named an unchanged starting XI for CCM's midweek clash in China but with the Australian side two goals down at half-time, the Englishman substituted Vitor Feijao for 19-year-old Bailey Brandtman.

It remains to be seen if Jackson keeps the same starting XI for the third game in a row, but Brandtman, Ngor and their second goalscorer on Tuesday, Nicholas Duarte, are all waiting in the wings if he does decide to change things up in Adelaide.

Experienced defender Trent Sainsbury remains a long-term injury absentee.

Adelaide United vs Central Coast Mariners Odds

*Please click on the link above to be taken to the main Adelaide United vs Central Coast Mariners page on betfred.com (or app) for all the live betting prices on this match.

Saturday's hosts are 11/10 to kick off their league campaign with a victory, giving the Reds an implied win probability of 47.6%, while the Mariners are 15/8, or a 34.8% chance, to grab their first three points of the season.

The draw, meanwhile, can be backed at 5/2, and both teams to score at 4/9.

Luka Jovanovic, who scored four A-League goals in 2023/24, is 8/5 favourite to score anytime, closely followed by teammate Goodwin and CCM's Alou Kuol (both 9/5).

Double Chance & Both Teams To Score - Draw or CCM & Yes @ 13/10

The Mariners have dominated this fixture over the past couple of years, winning six of the last seven games between them and Adelaide Utd.

The Reds won the first head-to-head at Coopers Stadium last season, triumphing 3-0 on home soil in October 2023, but the Mariners got their revenge - and then some - by returning to Adelaide in February and thrashing Veart's side 4-0 before beating them 2-0 in Gosford just under three months later.

Adelaide ended the 2023/24 campaign strongly by winning four of their last seven contests but the damage to their play-off bid had been done in the space of six weeks between February and March where they lost six matches in a seven-game winless run.

In the end, Adelaide were well off the pace, finishing seven points behind sixth-placed Melbourne City, and a whopping 18 points behind Premiership champions CCM, who would also go on to win the Grand Final, as well as the AFC Cup.

The Reds reached the semi-finals of the Australia Cup last month but they only edged past NPL Western Australia outfit Olympic Kingsway 3-2 in the last 16 and were taken to extra-time in their 2-1 victory over Western Sydney Wanderers in the semi-finals.

Their last competitive fixture, a 1-0 defeat to Melbourne Victory in the cup, came back on September 21, so there are concerns that it will take Veart's side a little while to get up to speed after starting a week later than every other team in the A-League Men's.

By contrast, CCM have played four competitive contests in just over a month, and two in the last week alone, following up their opening night draw at home to Melbourne Victory with a defeat in Shanghai.

The Mariners may be tired from their East Asia exploits, but I think they are in a more advantageous position than Adelaide, who are lacking rhythm.

Therefore, I'm backing Saturday's visitors to Coopers Stadium to avoid defeat, and we can boost the odds to 13/10 by selecting both teams to score. BTTS - Yes hasn't been a winner in the last four meetings between the sides but it landed in three of Adelaide's four Australia Cup matches and in four of the Mariners' five games this season, and both teams will be desperate to score their first A-League Men's goal of the campaign on Saturday.

Anytime Goalscorer - Luka Jovanovic (ADE) @ 8/5

Jovanovic made his Reds debut in the 2022/23 season, scoring three goals in nine A-League appearances before netting four in 24 outings the following campaign. That was a slightly disappointing total for a striker the club have high hopes for, but he's still only 19 and the form of veteran forward Ibusuki, in a difficult year for Veart's side, often kept him out of the starting XI.

Now, with Ibusuki gone and Adelaide only electing to bring in fellow teenager Goodwin up front, there is an opportunity for Jovanovic to nail down a starting spot and make the centre-forward position his own.

The Australian, who is also eligible to play international football for Serbia, has made an encouraging start to the new season, netting in back-to-back Australia Cup ties against Blacktown City and Olympic Kingsway, but he now has to make the step up and strike his first of the campaign against an A-League club having blanked in the quarter-finals at home to Western Sydney Wanderers.

Jovanovic is yet to score against the Mariners in his budding career, but on his fourth outing versus the Gosford club this weekend I'm backing him to find the net as he looks to establish himself in the Reds' starting XI.

Offers

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