Marco Kurz lauded the team’s resilience after Adelaide United secured a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Perth Glory at Coopers Stadium on Saturday night.
A Dino Djulbic own goal swiftly cancelled out Andy Keogh’s fourth-minute header before Nikola Mileusnic clinically buried the winner in emphatic fashion prior to the break.
The result lifted the Reds into fourth place on the league table, leapfrogging Melbourne Victory in the process following their loss to Newcastle Jets.
Kurz praised the Reds’ dominant display but felt his side could have scored more goals to eliminate the threat of a Perth equaliser.
“I think we played a good first-half, we had the control in the first-half as well,” Kurz said in the post-match press conference.
“Also in the second-half it’s my opinion that we could have killed the game.
“We had a lot of counter-attacking situations, and then we had to change both our centre-backs in (Jordan) Elsey and Ersan (Gülüm).
“And that’s normal that you have more pressure in the last ten minutes we also had a little bit of game luck.
“But I’m very proud about the performance from the boys and they give everything every game and they played very well.
“The win and the result was very important for us.”
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Kurz admitted he was worried that his side may rue their earlier missed chances when Perth applied a wave of pressure in the final stages of the game.
“For a coach it’s better if the players score a third goal,” he said.
“Then I have more rest on the side and I can stay more calm, but now we have a good result, it’s very good.”
Adelaide faced some adversity during the second-half with both central defenders in Jordan Elsey and Ersan Gülüm having to be substituted with respective injuries.
Kurz explained some of his decisions as he reverted to a back five in the hope of holding on for the three points.
“We dropped back into a back five line with Isa (Isaías) in the centre and then on the right side Mickey (Michael Marrone), left Taylor (Regan) and Benny (Ben Garuccio) and (Ryan) Strain to make the defence very strong,” he said.
“We had two number sixes with Nathan (Konstandopoulos) and Daniel Adlung.
“And the wingers must play more in the midfield and George (Blackwood) must run side to side a lot in this situation.”
Adelaide United host Central Coast Mariners in Round 20 of the Hyundai A-League 2017/18 season on Saturday, 17 February at Coopers Stadium. Kick-off is at 7.20pm ACDT.
