The Ultimate New Zealand Soccer Website | home
09Oct22 | 16Oct22 | 22Oct22 | 30Oct22 | 06Nov22 | 13Nov22 | 10Dec22 | 17Dec22 | 24Dec22 | 02Jan23 | 07Jan23 | 14Jan23 | 22Jan23 | 28Jan23 | 03Feb23 | 12Feb23 | 17Feb23 | 24Feb23 | 04Mar23 | 12Mar23 | 17Mar23 | 01Apr23 | 10Apr23 | 16Apr23 | 21Apr23 | 29Apr23 | 05May23
17Mar23
Adelaide Go Nap Against Wellington
by Jeremy Ruane
Adelaide United handed Wellington Phoenix their heaviest Isuzu Ute A-League defeat of the season at Coopers Stadium on March 17, thrashing the visitors 5-1 despite Ufuk Talay's team enjoying more possession and firing more shots than their hosts, who were urged onto victory by a 9,036-strong crowd.
In truth, this was a match where the scoreline doesn't reflect what took place on the field - had Wellington taken even a third of their opportunities, this would very likely have been the highest-scoring A-League match in history!
Yan Sasse fired their first shot in anger narrowly over the bar from twenty yards in the second minute, to which Ryan Kitto responded nine minutes later by stealing in on the blindside of the Brazilian to secure possession and surge downfield before battering a fiercely struck twenty-yarder narrowly past Oli Sail's left-hand post.
'Twas to be an evening Wellington's Perth Glory-bound goalkeeper will want to forget, and it was Adelaide's sixteenth minute opener which epitomised Sail's performance. A patient build-up culminated in Javi Lopez, Luka Jovanovic and Louis D'Arrigo combining with Zac Clough on the right.
His teasing cross arced over the head of Jovanovic and struck the retreating Scott Wootton, who was covering the striker's run. The ball ricocheted off the burly central defender and completely deceived Sail, who fumbled his attempt to grab the sphere and only succeeded in helping it into the net.
Wellington looked to reply swiftly, Steven Ugarkovic winning the ball in the centre circle and instantly unleashing the charging David Ball. He fed the overlapping figure of Bozhidar Kraev, whose driven cross was steered past the far post by Costa Barbarouses, who was deputising for Oskar Zawada, for whom fatherhood is imminent.
Adelaide responded by doubling their lead in the 23rd minute. Craig Goodwin's free-kick from the right wasn't cleared, allowing Jay Barnett to get in a header. Sail pawed it out, but only as far as Jovanovic, who gleefully stabbed home United's second goal of the evening.
They came close to netting a third goal eight minutes later, D'Arrigo's delicious angled ball opening up Wellington's defence. Jovanovic just failed to latch onto it - a let-off for the visitors, who dominated the rest of the half.
Lucas Mauragis teamed up with Kraev ten minutes before the interval, the Bulgarian's delightful chipped return pass over the defence inviting the fullback to run on and pull the ball back into the stride of Sasse, whose drive was well blocked by Joe Gauci. Ugarkovic, following in, was unable to direct the rebound on target.
Seconds later, Alex Rufer threaded a pass through the inside left channel to Sasse, who held off Lachlan Barr before unleashing a shot which Gauci turned round the far post. The resulting corner by Sasse was headed across goal and past the far post by Rufer.
How Wellington didn't halve the deficit in the 43rd minute only Barbarouses will know! Suffice to say, this is a sure-fire contender for miss of the season!! Gauci's failure to control a back-pass allowed the All White to swoop on the goalkeeper by the by-line, strip him of possession and head towards goal.
With Gauci out of the picture, Barr beating a hasty retreat towards the near post and Kraev racing into the heart of the goalmouth for a certain tap-in, Barbarouses set his sights and, with almost the entire goal at his mercy, let fly with a right-footed effort which struck the base of the far post and rebounded to safety … Wellington's night in front of goal in a nutshell!
Before the half-time whistle, Sasse shot straight at Gauci after evading a defender on receipt of Ball's perceptive pass, while Sail produced a super one-handed save low to his left to deny another Kitto piledriver, the last kick of a half from which the visitors should have gained more reward.
That they didn't came back to haunt them in the early stages of the second spell, but not before Ugarkovic and Sasse had combined with the
|
overlapping Callan Elliot, whose low cross zoomed across the penalty area to the far post, where Kraev, arriving on cue, unleashed a shot which, with Gauci beaten all ends up, was only prevented from entering the net by the far post by the despairing lunge of Lopez - he saved a certain goal.
Adelaide's response saw them extend their lead to 3-0 in the 51st minute, Barr's thumping six yard header arrowing into the bottom far corner of the net on receipt of Goodwin's pinpoint corner.
Wellington responded with a goal of their own three minutes later, Rufer sending Gauci the wrong way from the penalty spot after Sasse had been tripped by Barnett in the area, earning the Brazilian the disdain of United's faithful for the rest of the evening.
Rufer and Kraev combined neatly soon after to present Barbarouses with the chance to atone for his horror miss. Gauci was right behind his twenty-yarder, however, and after Mauragis had escaped a second booking after tangling with Isaias, United restored their three-goal margin in the 62nd minute.
Kitto picked out Goodwin up ahead of him, United's talisman instantly feeding the run of D'Arrigo through the inside left channel. He pulled the ball back to Hiroshi Ibusuki, who marked his first touch of the game since coming on as a substitute by sweeping the sphere home from ten yards - 4-1.
There was no way back for Wellington from this, and after Sail had kept out a stinging twenty-five yarder from Barnett, and teenage sensation Nestory Irankunda had fired wide of an open goal from an acute angle having raced through and rounded Sail upon being released by Goodwin's probing pass, United went nap in the 71st minute.
Fittingly, it was Goodwin who did the honours, the Socceroo being picked out by Isaias on the left. He scythed inside before wrong-footing a defender and rifling the ball into the far corner of the net to the undisguised delight of the local faithful, who had just witnessed United's thirteenth goal on home turf in their last three fixtures at Coopers Stadium - if it's entertainment you're after, Adelaide's your team.
To their eternal credit, Wellington never gave up in their pursuit of goals in this contest. Fifteen minutes from time, Kraev got the better of D'Arrigo and cut in from the left before firing an inviting low cross into the goalmouth which Sasse, at full stretch with Gauci beaten and the goal at his mercy, directed onto the far upright.
Two minutes later, Gauci kept out a twenty-yarder from Kraev after Sasse and Ball had set him up. Sasse featured again ten minutes later, but at the other end of the park - how he got away with not conceding a penalty after tripping Jonny Yull just inside the area only referee Alex King will know!
In stoppage time, Irankunda drilled a twenty-yarder past the near post then slammed another effort into Sail's midriff as his pursuit of a fourth successive goal off the substitute's bench this time went unrewarded.
Sail then found himself in no man's land as an Adelaide counter-attack culminated in Goodwin letting fly from just inside Wellington's half, the ball curling narrowly past the far post with the 'keeper looking on with relief, as he did seconds later as Ibusuki's twenty-yarder cleared the crossbar, the final act of a contest which, had the visitors won it, would have seen them draw level with second-placed Adelaide on the standings.
Instead, they copped a hiding from their hosts, United making it 23 points from a possible 30 on home turf this season. And with three games still to play at Coopers Stadium, they look a good bet to extend their campaign beyond the end of April.
Adelaide: Gauci; Lopez, Ansell (Popovic, 60), Barr (booked, 81), Kitto; D'Arrigo (Yull, 87), Barnett (Alagich, 68), Isaias; Clough (Irankunda, 68), Jovanovic (Ibusuki, 60), Goodwin
Wellington: Sail; Elliot (booked, 33), Wootton, Payne, Mauragis (booked, 22) (Sutton, 63); Sasse, Rufer (Van Hattum, 67), Ugarkovic (Pennington, 87), Kraev (Old, 87); Barbarouses (Lewis, 63), Ball
Referee: Alex King
|