Adelaide United stunned Melbourne City at Hindmarsh Stadium on Saturday night in the final game of the home and away season, embarrassing the Melburnians with a 4-1 drubbing.
The Reds ended the regular season on a high after scoring three first half goals through Miguel Palanca, Pablo Sanchez and Tarek Elrich, who took one of the goals of the season inside 33 minutes.
City had the better run of play for the majority of the second half but could not stop Reds substitute Cameron Watson from scoring his first goal for United in 105 appearances from the penalty spot, despite having to take his shot twice.
Aaron Mooy added a consolation for the visitors with a penalty of his own shortly after, before key City defender Kew Jaliens was given a straight red card for a clumsy foul on Craig Goodwin. Adelaide defender Michael Marrone also saw red shortly after for a studs-up tackle on Erik Paartalu, a sour note to an otherwise wonderful evening for United.
Adelaide are championship contenders
Despite a lack of form in recent weeks having lost their last two games, the Reds sent a message to the rest of the league and marked themselves as a championship contender with the thrashing of the Melbourne side. And they could not have done it at a better time going into a home elimination final against City or Brisbane Roar, pending other results.
Reds manager Josep Gombau made clear the importance of his side’s fantastic performance in his post-match press conference going into their most important game of the season, saying that it will fill them with confidence for the cut-throat match.
Van’t Schip has major problems
Melbourne City head coach John van’t Schip will be scratching his head after his side put in yet another poor display away from home. His side will be travelling to Wellington or Adelaide pending the result of Sunday’s match between Wellington and Sydney for an elimination final, the club’s first appearance under new ownership.
Having suffered varying degrees of criticism throughout the 2014-15 season (particularly early), van’t Schip will need to rally his troops yet again in preparation for the match despite his side’s latest pair of disappointing results.
The City coach stated after their loss at Perth Glory last Sunday that his side needed to change its mentality when it travelled to Adelaide and expressed the importance of finishing their home and away campaign on a high ahead of finals.
The loss to the Reds will put a dent in City’s confidence, and the task of getting his side up and ready for finals will no doubt prove a huge task for the Dutchman.
City defence made it easy
The Melbourne side’s loose defending made it all too easy for the Reds to waltz through to goal, as well as allowing Elrich to go on a 60-metre run, stepping past multiple City players with ease before netting what will likely prove to be goal of the season.
https://youtu.be/2DYV9Gm1Huk
And they were clumsy. Jonatan Germano gave away a cheap, unnecessary penalty after half-time when his side began strongly after the break before Jaliens added further pain by getting sent off for a poor challenge on the edge of the area.
United lose Marrone for elimination final
The Reds defender will face suspension for a late, aggressive tackle on Paartalu, the length of which is yet to be decided. As well as his key defender, Gombau was also seeing red due to Marrone’s brain fade, the referee’s decision dampening his side’s night in what was essentially a dead rubber.
United will be forced to call upon a player that will likely have sat on the bench for the majority of their season, providing whomever it may be with an unlikely starting XI opportunity for the club’s finals campaign.
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