The Adelaide United Youth Team has returned to the top of the NPL State League ladder with a come from behind 2-1 win over Eastern United at Athelstone Recreation Reserve on Monday afternoon.
In the Young Reds third match in seven days, the early dominance belonged to Adelaide United although majority of the football was spent within the midfield in the opening 10 minutes.
The Adelaide United Youth started to be accustoming to the pitch conditions which enabled right back Mark Ochieng and winger Antoni Trimboli to combine well to start attacks and threaten The Eastern United defence.
Despite controlling much of the possession, it was Eastern United who unexpectedly struck first. After a well weighted pass from the Eastern United midfielder, the ball fell to the feet of Moses Jackson whose shot was too powerful for Daniel Margush giving the home side a goal just on 17 minutes.
After the goal Adelaide began to start pressuring, triggering attacks from both wings as well as testing the keeper through efforts from Niko Apostolopolous and Ben Warland.
As half time approached set piece specialist Oliver Zafridis had a chance just outside the box, which saw keeper Fabio Migliaccio expertly palm the ball away sending his side into the break with a goal advantage.
Straight after the restart Adelaide United were first to gather momentum, seeing them play the ball around freely with Eastern United doing most of the chasing.
In the 60th minute, midfielder Adam Piscioneri was given too much space by the Eastern United defence which saw him dribble past two players and take a shot only flashing wide of the post.
The Adelaide United supporters felt an equaliser was on the cards and in the 65th minute an in swinging corner by Oliver Zafridis was turned in by an Eastern United defender handing The Young Reds a crucial equaliser.
With the game at 1-1 the Young Reds were only going to gather more momentum. This time dominating possession and pressing forward with speed.
In 71st minute Adelaide’s persistence paid off, as a forward run by Jordan Pudler found Alec Maiolo alone on the right wing whose cross was able to find the arriving Doni Pollock who had the simplest job of passing the ball into the back of the net giving Adelaide United a 2-1 lead.
The duration of the match saw seemingly half chances created by Eastern United who weren’t able to get pass The Young Reds defence which saw them stand tall and outlast their opponents 2-1.
After the match, Adelaide United Youth Team head-coach, Michael Valkanis, said he was happy with his side’s performance and the way his players controlled the match throughout the 90 minutes.
“In the first half we played reasonably well, we dominated the game but weren’t able to break them down and they scored on the counter”.
“In the second half we were able to break them down better especially from our wide areas and we got in behind them, created some good chances and scored two good goals”.
“Overall, I was very happy with their character, work rate (to get back from one nil down in a rough environment) and pleased to get all three points away from home”.
Central defender Ben Warland was also pleased with the result and believes the squad needs to work harder when it comes to conceding early goals.
“It was a hard fought game and we were lucky to get the result. We played well in patches but again we are conceding first and that’s the problem we have to sort out. We played three games this week and conceded first in all of them so we will look at it next week and hopefully get out of that habit”.
“Overall we just needed to stick with the game plan and we did that after half time, so we are pleased with the result and we look forward to next Saturday”.
Match Details
Monday, 9 March 2015
NPL 2015 State League – Round 5
Eastern United 1 (M.Jackson)
Adelaide United 2 (D.Pollock, TOG)
Venue: Athelstone Recreation Reserve
Adelaide United will next travel to Port Pirie to take on the Northern Demons this Saturday 14 March at Byrne Park in Round 6 of the NPL State League Season. Kick-off at 6:00pm.
And the Adelaide United reserves are also making the trip to o Port Pirie to take on the Northern Demons this Saturday 14 March at Byrne Park. Kick-off at 4:00pm.
