Adelaide United fell to a disappointing 1-7 defeat to last season’s grand finalists, Adelaide City in Round 3 of the PlayStation 4 National Premier Leagues at The Parks Football Centre.
A goal to Apostolos Stamatelopoulos proved only a consolation, as a number of Adelaide City’s men reigned supreme. Goals to Anthony Costa, Nicholas Bucco, Dylan Smith, Jordan Pudler, Mamadi Kamara and Evan Kostopoulos ultimately sealed the deal.
The match proved to be a promising one for the hosts, as Adelaide United matched their City opponents respectively, as neither side fought to grab full ascendancy in an intense opening 30 minutes.
Captain, Josh Mori, gave his side their first real chance of the match in the 15th minute, with a thunderous drill from distance that rattled the crossbar.
Young Reds’ goalkeeper, Cameron Cook saved a thrilling volley from Costa, leaping to tap away the threat. Following another effort by Mori, Cook then kept his side in the game momentarily, by thwarting Bucco from opening the scoring.
It took just over half an hour in for City to spark their dominance, beginning with Costa who fired from inches outside of the 18-yard-box, putting the lead into motion.
Just before the halftime break, Bucco of the Black and Whites converted from the spot, as Costa was fouled by Jordan Maricic, resulting in a 0-2 lead for the visitors.
Adelaide City advanced on their lead almost instantaneously in the second stanza, when Smith latched onto the loose ball, invading the United defence, to find the left corner of the goal, as Ryan Strain’s earlier chance from the edge of the box was left in vain.
City showed no signs of stopping, as Pudler shocked the crowd with an impressive long-distance lob over Cook that found the back of the net to extend the lead further.
In the 63rd minute, substitute Kamara angled his drive into the bottom-left corner. Ten minutes later, United’s Stamatelopoulos got one back for his side, with a venomous shot into the right corner of Luke Ostbye’s goal.
Costa then secured his brace following a headed effort into goal from a corner, and then Kostopoulos got his name on the scoresheet for the side’s seventh goal.
Adelaide United Head Coach, Huss Skenderovic, praised his side’s performance for most of the first-half, but is adamant that there is a lot of work to do, with taking chances and being solid defensively, to succeed against top quality teams in the competition.
”I thought we started the game really well, and in the first 25-30 minutes we actually played very good, as we kept the ball moving and created two very good opportunities, but we didn’t take them,” Skenderovic said.
“I think because we are so young, and when we get hit with easy goals, and losing those 50/50 balls due to mistakes on our behalf, at this level, we will get punished for it.
“Then your heads drop, and it is hard to pick yourselves up from it, but it is a learning curve as that is the benchmark, and they know where they are at, which is the positive we can take out from it.
“In patches, we did play some really good football and created some chances, but defensively we do have a lot of work to do.
“We have to make sure we are defensively solid, concentrate better and be more aggressive, and make sure our lines between defence and midfield are better.
“There is a lot to work on for us, but all credit to Adelaide City, they are a really top team.”
Reserves:
Adelaide United 6
Adelaide City 1
