- Adelaide United finished in the top half of A-League Women last term and carry over more continuity into this opener
- Adelaide travel with a cleaner sheet of absentees than Sydney, who are without a number of rotational pieces
- The last 10 A-League Women head-to-heads have finished all square (W4, D2, L4) with the last two ending 0-0
Sydney’s build-up has been more eventful
The 2026 - 2027 Ninja A-League Women campaign kicks off on Sunday with both these sides on the same points tally and looking for an early statement win.
But while both teams are much-changed from 12 months ago, Sydney's recent build-up has been different. The Sky Blues were below their usual high standards in the latter stages of the 2025 - 26 A-League Women season, but James Slaveski's rebuilding programme has injected new life and attacking ideas.
Sydney played Tottenham Hotspur in the Sydney Super Cup, ending in a 1-1 draw, so they have plenty of work to do to get up to speed this coming week.
Captain Natalie Tobin is the spark for Sydney as they play a possession-first game with plenty of combinations wide and good build-up to create pressure in the opponent's half. Their ability to win the ball high and create chances from pressure is the key to this season's plans.
Tight tussle tipped with Adelaide able to edge it
Adelaide's build-up has been quieter, with new signings and mixed warm-up results, but they look the steadier of the two coming into this game. Theo Tsiounis sets them up to press high and hard, but also to flood forward in numbers in transition, so this could come down to whether Sydney can play their game against the Reds' aggression.
Adelaide have a new focal point in Tessa Salvestrin, who can provide a different dimension to the Reds attack and should offer a physical target to stretch a Sydney defence that can be guilty of over-committing.
Back the visitors to win at 2.3, which is shorter than the 2.8 being offered on the Sky Blues or 3.4 on the draw. The market has this as a close opener and that looks about right, but Adelaide's cleaner sheet of reported absentees and Sydney's lack of some rotational pieces, such as Jada Whyman, Shay Hollman and Amelia Cassar, may just swing the balance towards the visitors.
Opposing both teams to score makes sense
Under 2.5 goals at 1.93 seems a good fit for this encounter, but the sharper selection here is BTTS - No at 2.1 if this is another tactical battle.
Adelaide's main spark is Chelsie Dawber, who remains the most dangerous Reds player in transition and around the box. Sydney are without some important rotational players, which could stretch their depth early on.
There have been a lot of clean sheets in this fixture in the A-League Women since 2023, but also several one-goal swings, which is why there is some scope for both sides to get on the scoresheet and why the best play here is to oppose goals.
