Goals from Sergio Cirio, Marcelo Carrusca, and Craig Goodwin have seen Adelaide United make it six matches without defeat, beating Perth Glory 3-1 at nib Stadium.
With the match starting at a rather slow and controlled pace, neither side burst out of the blocks. But seemingly out of no where, and on their first attack of the match, Glory went 1-0 up when Richard Garcia’s cross bounced off Tarek Elrich and into the back of his own net.
This woke the Reds and commenced their dominance of the ball and of their opponent.
Then, in the 17th minute, United looked certain to equalise when Sergio Cirio cut back for Bruce Djite, who just needed to get something onto the ball to convert. However, Josh Risdon flew in and cleared from the tip of Djite’s foot.
But Djite wasn’t discouraged and continued to throw himself into every challenge and put the Perth defence under copious amounts of pressure.
And it was Djite who was key in fashioning the Reds equaliser, controlling the ball and holding off a defender in the box before laying off for Marcelo Carrusca. Carrusca took the line and squared the ball back to the feet of Cirio who was never going to miss from six-yards out.
The remainder of the half was relatively uneventful, but in the 45th minute Alex Grant was rightfully given his marching orders when he blatantly brought down Goodwin as the last man and prevented a clear goal-scoring opportunity.
After the break, United exploded into life, and within two minutes hit the front through a typically classy goal from Carrusca. With no room to turn, the Argentine wizard somehow found space to beat three defenders and strike a low, right-footed drive into the bottom left corner and easily past Covic.
Using the extra man to their advantage, the Reds dominated possession for the entirety of the second half and created a number of quality chances to test Covic in Glory’s goal.
With only a few minutes remaining on the clock, Goodwin broke past the last line of Glory’s defence and beamed towards goal. With Pablo Sánchez to his right in support, Goodwin played it short to the Spaniard, but with the ball bobbling at the last second, Pablo Sánchez put his effort over the bar.
But Goodwin made amends and sealed the win for the visitors when he cut in from the left and smashed the ball home with his right boot.
Following the game, United Head Coach, Guillermo Amor, praised his side’s performance, saying the Reds did what was necessary to claim a valuable three points away from home.
“The performance, for me, was good,” Amor said. “The start of the game was difficult because of Perth’s early goal.
“But our reaction was good and we grew into the game well after the goal.
“In the last minutes, Perth with 10-men went for the draw, but in the end we knew what to do in each moment.
“The results are important and to win games builds our confidence. In the last few games we have been getting these results and good points.
“This is our first win away from home, but if we look back, there have been games that maybe we could have won.
“For us it’s always good to get points away (from home) and we will always play the same, no matter where we are.”
Match details:
Saturday, 9 January 2016
Hyundai A-League Round 14
Perth Glory 1 (Elrich (OG) 6’)
Adelaide United 3 (Cirio 27’ Carrusca 47’ Goodwin 90+4’)
Venue: nib Stadium
Attendance: 9,009
