Marco Kurz believed Adelaide United’s inability to match Melbourne Victory’s physicality contributed to their downfall.
Adelaide fell 3-0 to their fierce rivals at AAMI Park on Saturday night with Kurz left to rue a disappointing performance from his players.
The Reds conceded two goals during a seven minute period in the first-half and never fully recovered.
An own goal from Taylor Regan was quickly followed by a stunning Leroy George free-kick in the 29th minute.
“Our start was not good enough I think today you saw the difference between a very experienced team and a young team,” Kurz lamented in the post-match press conference.
“Victory played very strong in the duels and very clever and my boys in a lot of situations were too scared.
“I think we also made a lot of mistakes in our passing and in our ball control and I think that was one of the reasons in the first-half.
“And then when they (the referee) sent a player off I think today we had no chance of a comeback.”
Adelaide’s woes were compounded when half-time substitute Džengis Čavušević was dismissed nine minutes into the second-half after a confrontation with Rhys Williams.
And Melbourne profited from their numerical advantage on 59 minutes courtesy of Besart Berisha’s finish.
Kurz revealed Čavušević was frustrated for letting his teammates down, but will learn from the mistake.
“He’s not happy, he’s come to Australia and he has the chance to play in the second-half and he’s motivated,” he said.
“And after this moment I think he felt not good but it’s also a moment he’ll learn from in the future.
“In the next situation he’ll do nothing and maybe the Victory player will get the card.
“But in this situation he made a mistake by pushing him (Williams) back and that’s the reason for the (red) card.”
The win enabled the Victory to leapfrog Adelaide into fourth, with the Reds dropping to fifth spot in the league standings.
Kurz said the result has not quashed hopes of finishing the campaign strongly and cementing a finals berth.
“In the last four games we have two wins, a draw and a loss,” he said.
“We believe and we have confidence today was not our day but we stand up tomorrow and are looking forward to the away game in Brisbane.”
Adelaide United will face Brisbane Roar in Round 22 of the Hyundai A-League 2017/18 season on Saturday, 3 March at Suncorp Stadium. Kick-off is at 7.20pm ACDT.
