Football Tips 15/07/2014 -

The Kickers are an entertaining side to watch, as seven of their last nine league games saw over 2.5 goals. This fixture has been particularly interesting in the recent past, with all three previous head to heads seeing over 3.5 goals (and that run includes a cup final!). The season has just kicked off, but both sides opened their campaigns by scoring and conceding last Friday. Last season’s entertaining play should continue at both clubs then, and last season Kickers scored an impressive 39 goals in 19 at home last season, but conceded 26, whilst Schalding-Heining scored 20 and conceded 35 on the road, which saw them lose 11 of their 17 games. The Kickers have retained top-scorer Christopher Bieber and Schalding-Heining have held on to their top-scorers Michael Pillmeier and Josf Eibl. It is impossible to call a winner in this game, but based on their attacking philosophies it should prove to be an entertaining spectacle either way.

FC Santa Coloma have lost all but one of their home Champions League qualifiers by more than one goal and Maccabi Tel Aviv are of a much better standard of teams that have traveled to Andorra for one of these ties. Expect the Israel team to come out firing at an impressive return to football in friendlies where they have scored 13 goals in three games before grabbing a draw against a decent Strum Graz team. Maccabi Tel Aviv were the biggest scorers in Israel last season and they should be relishing this tie despite it being pre-season for them.

Illertissen finished second last season, missing out on promotion by four points. This summer they have strengthened by making four new signings whilst only two players have departed (one retired). They are strong going forward and defending, as last season they scored the second most amount of goals (79 in 36 games) and conceded the joint-least with 33. They have got off to a good start to this campaign by beating Augsburg II (4th place last season) 3-0. Young striker Ardian Morina looks to have stepped up to the plate with two goals in that game and with the new signings bedding in well then this bodes well for the coming season. Illertissen have won the last 3 of 4 head to heads with Ingolstadt 04 II and drawn the other (winning both times away).

Oxford City have not played a game since April, and this is their first pre-season friendly. United have meanwhile got back in the groove with an impressive 2-1 win at the weekend against Conference side Farnborough. United’s new head coach Michael Appleton has previously managed big clubs such as West Brom (caretaker), Portsmouth, Blackpool and Blackburn, though was never given more than a year in charge at any of these clubs. He is a well-regarded coach though and has great determination to succeed as a manager after injury forced to him to retire from playing in the prime of his career. He should do well when given time and a pre-season at a stable club like Oxford United. Appleton described United's last performance as comfortable in defence and explained the goal they conceded was merely a freak goal as it came from the half-way line. United are looking to build on their win and have new striker Danny Hylton available for the game. More exciting than Hylton though is young striker James Roberts, who has scored for fun in the youth level and was selected in the Football League Education (LFE) best 11 players for the fourth quarter of last year. He managed 2 goals in the first friendly of the season, and the clash with City should prove to be a test of his ability to stand up to a team of that play on their physical strengths rather than pure footballing ability. United are also set to reveal a new signing before the game, so Appleton will want to record a win against their local rivals to avoid negative headlines overshadowing the announcement of his new signings.