Adelaide gives Sydney the Blues with late winner

By Andrew McGarry

Updated November 23, 2012 23:06:59

Adelaide United have increased their lead at the top of the A-League ladder, putting more pressure on Sydney FC with a late goal to seal a 2-1 win at the Sydney Football Stadium on Friday night.

It was an entertaining match, and John Kosmina’s men could have won by more, with officials incorrectly ruling out a first-half goal by Marcelo Carrusca for offside.

There was plenty of action at both ends, with the visitors starting much the better.

Twelve minutes in, the Reds opened up Sydney’s vulnerable defence with a great through ball to Carrusca, and the midfielder smashed the ball past Ivan Necevski for what looked like the opener.

The referees’ assistant ruled it out for offside, but replays showed that Carrusca was clearly onside.

Eight minutes later United made amends, when the Reds placed a perfect pass to Dario Vidosic, who flicked the ball clear to Fabio Ferreira for the Portuguese midfielder to make no mistake with a cool finish.

The Sky Blues rebounded after the poor start, and began to put some moves together.

Alessandro Del Piero was the familiar driving force behind most of Sydney’s attacks, and he nearly had success after 37 minutes, when his dipping free-kick was tipped over the bar by Eugene Galekovic.

Sydney started the second half the stronger, and the visitors found themselves under serious pressure.

The home side made their advantage count with more than half an hour to go, as a fantastic through ball by Pascal Bosschart set Yairo Yau free down the left.

The Panamanian striker streaked clear before coolly placing the ball wide of Galekovic into the corner of the net for the equaliser.

Sydney’s Jason Culina received a standing ovation in the 67th minute when he came on as a sub for his first appearance in 22 months.

As time ticked down, however, United began to reassert themselves, and looked the more likely to grab a winner.

In the 88th minute, the inevitable happened, when Dario Vidosic followed up a shot by Nigel Boogaard which hit the crossbar to volley the ball home for the crucial goal.

The win puts Adelaide (19 points) five points clear of the nearest challenger Central Coast Mariners.

Adelaide coach John Kosmina told Grandstand that he was happy with the result.

“If you take it across the 90 minutes, we were in and out of it, but I think we played well enough to deserve to get the full three points,” he said.

Asked if he was disappointed with aspects of his team’s performance, he pointed only to the way Adelaide conceded Sydney’s goal.

“We’re not a side that can go long (with the ball), especially from goal kicks,” he said.

“We have to play the ball into the opposition’s half. We tried to go long once (tonight) and we got punished for it.”

Kosmina did not lay into officials for the error in disallowing Carrusca’s goal, preferring to focus on the strong move by United.

“I was happy with the way the goal was constructed,” he said.

“I’m more disappointed from Marcelo’s point of view – everything about it was quality and he missed out on his first goal in the A-League.

“I guess I’ve enough experience with having to deal with these things, (but) maybe I wouldn’t be so happy if we came away with just one point.”

In contrast to high-flying Adelaide, Sydney are anchored at the foot of the A-League ladder.

Acting Sydney coach Steve Corica told Grandstand it was a frustrating position for the Sky Blues who have now lost four games in a row.

“It’s very hard to take,” he said. “It’s very frustrating for all of us – we’re starting to show signs (of frustration).

“We’re picking up silly yellow cards … we can’t afford to do that.”

“We thought we could come here (at home) and wanted to win, it doesn’t matter we are bottom (of the ladder) the league’s very close and anyone can beat anyone.

“We are conceding late goals – I don’t know if it’s concentration, but we’ve got to look at it at training and try to stop the goals going in.”

Adelaide 2 (Ferreira 20′, Vidosic 88′)

Sydney FC 1 (Yau 56′)

Topics: sport, soccer, sydney-2000, nsw, adelaide-5000, sa, australia

First posted November 23, 2012 22:06:00

Adelaide gives Sydney the Blues with late winner http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-89EKCgBk8MZdE.gif