Adelaide United hero Marcelo Carrusca says he reprised some of the skills he practiced as a boy when his deft rabona assist helped seal the Reds’ progression in the Westfield FFA Cup Round of 16 on Wednesday night.
The Argentine ace was instrumental in helping the inaugural FFA Cup title holder dump Sydney FC out of the Cup for the second straight season.
At a buzzing Coopers Stadium, Carrusca turned the Cup tie in the Reds’ favour deep into extra-time with his individual brilliance laying on the winner for Dylan McGowan in the 2-1 victory.
“I did the first touch and after the ball is a little bit behind my right leg, so for me it was easy to use my right leg,” Carrusca told reporters on Thursday.
“Luckily Dylan was there and we were able to score.It was a tough game and we were very happy to win and now we wait for the next stage.”
Reds down Sydney in extra time thriller
“I think I’ve tried it a couple of times before but I can’t remember, it was a long time ago. Not with that success,” he said.
For those who don’t know, a “rabona” is the Spanish word for ribbon and refers to when a player deftly wraps one leg around another to play the ball. It requires great skill and confidence and can often deceive defenders.
“It’s something that when you’re a kid, you try to do many times but not after you are a professional player,” the 31-year-old added.
“Guillermo [Amor] gives us freedom in the middle to do whatever we want but of course we must always keep a good shape and speak to each other all the time.”
Carrusca’s FFA Cup rabona has fans abuzz
Elaborating on the new coach at Adelaide following the recent departure of Josep Gombau, Carrusca said fans could expect to see a slight change in the Reds style this season under former Barcelona legend Amor.
“It’s a long process of course, we want to play the same style but this coach is adding some concept that we don’t understand very well and it will take time for us to be fit and be good with the style as well,” he said.
“It’s not very different but he has different concepts and now we are doing different things compared to last season. We have trained for two years one way, now it’s starting to change a bit of course this is going to take time.”
