Adelaide United has suffered its first loss of pre-season, falling 3-1 against Macarthur FC at Valentine Sports Park on Thursday.
Reds Captain, Stefan Mauk, converted a penalty to begin the second-half but the Bulls’ 3-0 half-time lead ultimately proved insurmountable.
Ivan Franjic put the A-League’s newest side in front in the 20th minute before Macarthur scored two goals in quick succession prior to the break through Moudi Najjar and Matthew Derbyshire.
Speaking after the Reds’ second pre-season friendly in Sydney, Carl Veart said his side came undone due to a lack of sharpness, but saw improvement following the re-start.
“It was a good hit-out for us,” Veart told AUFC Media.
“It showed Macarthur have played three or four games against A-League opposition and that showed at the beginning of the game.
“They just seemed a little bit sharper than us, a little bit better organised against A-League opposition.
“So the first-half, it was tough for us. We struggled a little bit with our organisation in the first-half, and they were good in the first-half.
“But in saying that in the second-half, I thought the boys came out and fixed a few of the issues that we were having in the first-half and I thought we had the better of the second-half.”
Adelaide’s pre-season camp in Sydney has now ended after four days and Veart believed the trip has provided a solid indication of where the team is at.
“It was always going to be tough to play these two games in a short space (of time) against two good teams,” he said.
“We knew that and we wanted to test ourselves and challenge ourselves and today we certainly got the challenge that we were looking for.
“So now it gives us a reference point to go away, have a look at what we did well and where we let ourselves down.”
Match details:
Thursday, 10 December 2020
Pre-season Friendly
Macarthur FC 3 (Franjic 20’, Najjar 43’, Derbyshire 44’)
Adelaide United 1 (Mauk 47’ (P))
Venue: Valentine Sports Park
Adelaide United
Starting XI: James Delianov (GK), Ryan Strain, Jordan Elsey, Michael Jakobsen, Noah Smith, Joe Caletti, Stefan Mauk, James Troisi, Yaya Dukuly, Kusini Yengi, Ben Halloran
Substitutes: Michael Marrone, George Timotheou, Domenic Costanzo, Louis D’Arrigo, Nathan Konstandopoulos, Pacifique Niyongabire, Dakota Ochsenham (GK), Yared Abetew, Jonny Yull
Macarthur FC
Starting XI: Adam Federici (GK), Aleksandar Sunsjar, Mark Milligan, Ivan Franjic, James Meredith, Denis Genreau, Antony Martis, Liam Rose, Loic Puyo, Moudi Najjar, Matthew Derbyshire
Substitutes: Antony Golec, Charles M’Momwba, Jake Hollman, Nicholas Suman (GK), Yianni Nicolaou, Michael Ruhs
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