Adelaide United managed to take away all three points with a 1-0 result in ‘The Original Rivalry’ against Melbourne Victory on Saturday night, as a lone goal from Mohamed Toure was enough to see off the the opposition.
Both teams were looking to bounce back from poor performances with the visitors having previously lost 3-1 to Brisbane Roar at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium in their opening game of the A-League. On the flip side, the Reds were looking to recover after being thoroughly outplayed in Perth, having conceded five goals against Glory.
Carl Veart’s men were the ones to go on the front foot in the initial stages of the game, as Toure dashed down the left beating defenders with his pace. The current youngest scorer in the league cut inwards from the left flank and let loose a right-footed shot that produced a sensational one-handed save from goalkeeper Max Crocombe before the ball was cleared out by the defence.
Eight minutes into the game, a set-play on the right wing close to the corner flag saw Jake Brimmer send in a wicked delivery as striker Rudy Gestede launched himself into a powerful header that was too quick for shot-stopper James Delianov. But the ball clattered into the post to deny away side from drawing first blood.
During the course of that header, Gestede landed in a slightly awkward manner and appeared to feel his hamstring. Two minutes later, the towering hitman had to be taken off due to injury, with Elvis Kamsoba being brought on as the replacement.
After 11 minutes, Toure tactically switched sides to go down the right and unleash a shot that had some of the Reds supporters thinking he had scored. But the ball had hit the wrong side of the net with the game remaining deadlocked at that point.
Immediately at the other end, midfielder Callum McManaman cut one through that somehow eluded fan favourite Marco Rojas from getting to the end of it.
With 18 minutes gone, Crocombe was forced to make a save following a Red attack on the right. The corner that ensued saw Michael Jakobsen get to the end of it, but the effort was lacking as it amounted to nothing in the end.
The game then settled into a rhythm with Adelaide exerting overall dominance while the visitors – having had to change their strategy following Gestede being substituted – stayed on the back foot.
But with less than 10 minutes to go before half-time, substitute Kamsoba managed to let loose a hard hit shot from the right. Unfortunately for the Victory attacker, the ball was straight at ‘keeper Delianov to make a decent save.
Early on in the second period, the Reds won the ball from a Victory throw in and it arrived for hitman Tomi Juric to use a short pass and send it to approaching teammate Ben Halloran. The 28-year-old attacking midfielder hesitated slightly while the visitors’ defence hesitated even more, allowing him to unleash an exceptionally well hit flighted shot from long range. But the opposition’s last line of defence in the form of Crocombe held down the fort, as Crocombe produced an acrobatic full-stretch one-handed save to tip the ball over the bar.
Grant Brebner’s evening was not going well as the home side dominated the proceedings, and things were about to get worse for him as McManaman pulled up with an injury in the 50th minute. On the bright side for Victory, Robbie Kruse came on as a substitute after recovering from an injury that had seen him out of action for almost a year.
Having already used two of the allowed three substitution windows to replace injured players, the visiting side were at a tactical disadvantage early on in the second-half when Toure outmuscled and outfoxed defender Dylan Ryan on the right. The 16-year-old waltzed into space and unleashed a left-footed shot that let ‘keeper Crocombe with no chance to make it 1-0.
Victory showed good resilience despite their injuries causing tactical woes, when the Reds youngster Yaya Dukuly played Juric through on goal. But new signing Ryan Shotton put in a strong block to deny the scoring opportunity.
Minutes later, Toure went down the right causing problems – as he had all evening – and pulled up with a cramp in the attacking third of the pitch, with the hosts being reduced to 10-men for a short time before Kusini Yengi was brought on as a replacement. But during that time, Brebner’s men capitalised on their numerical advantage by pressing forward as Kamsoba forced a save from Delianov that landed dangerously in the centre of the box. But no man in blue was on hand to make the most of that situation.
With 20 minutes to go and trailing by a goal, a defensive error from Adelaide allowed Rojas to go clean through. But the attacker’s touch on the ball was stronger than it should have been and Delianov came out to collect the loose ball. The Kiwi should have done better on that occasion, as he spurned a glorious chance to equalise.
Despite the missed opportunity, Victory did not let their shoulders droop and continued to press for an equaliser. A chance came after 74 minutes after some excellent passing in the box was followed by a back pass to Adama Traore, who took one touch and let loose a superb shot that went agonizingly wide of the target.
With the clock approaching 80 minutes, Veart’s men were looking to close out the game by sitting deep as Kruse showed good movement, poise and attacking intent. But the home side showed stoic defending on each occasion that caused a threat.
The Reds took their tactics a little too far as Juric was booked for time wasting, as tempers were starting to boil on either side. This overflowed in the 82nd minute when the former CSKA Sofia forward was taken down by Traore – who had been booked previously – as Leigh Broxham approached from behind. Despite the hitman being down, young defender Ryan showed a little inexperience by rushing in to take the ball away after the man in charge had blown the whistle. This caused a scuffle to break out between the two sides as the referee took some time to bring things under control.
With frayed tempers and emotions running high, the game turned physical as Victory midfielder Jacob Butterfield was taken down on a couple of occasions, while defender Ryan returned the favour to Juric.
Kruse was bursting in with a minute left to go in normal time, when the Reds midfielder Louis D’Arrigo took him out with a tactical foul to deny what would likely have been an excellent opportunity. The young Unitedacademy graduate received a yellow card for his disruption.
When the referee called time on the heated encounter, it was Adelaide who took all three points as Delianov would have been happy to keep a clean sheet after conceding five in the previous game against Perth.
Melbourne Victory fell to two straight defeats following this encounter, and take on Perth Glory on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Adelaide United will travel to lock horns with Brisbane Roar on Saturday.
