Another embarrassing thrashing of Adelaide United in a finals series, another coach’s outburst. No evil forces conspiring, just the city of Adelaide, a “piss-ant” according to Aurelio Vidmar.
After Vidmar’s hissy-fit, it’s hard to see how Adelaide are going to regroup for their semi-final against the Queensland Roar, who put the Central Coast Mariners away 4-1 on aggregate.
But, to think back to Saturday night. The biggest question mark before the game was what part Carlos Hernández would play. I’d anticipated a second-half appearance from the Costa Rican, but Ernie Merrick had different plans. Within ten minutes it paid dividends, Hernández threading a ball through to Archie Thompson to set up the first goal. Fifteen minutes later, Carlos got his own chance and fired it into the roof of the Adelaide goal. 2-0, 30 minutes gone, game over.
Hernández then set up two more, first for Danny Allsopp, then for Tom Pondeljak in the second half (what a fine volley from Tommy P that was). After years of being compared to his predecessor, Fred, Hernández pulled off a display on Saturday night that was on par with Fred’s Grand Final performance. Ernie Merrick, Gary Cole, et al.: Please do everything within your power to retain Carlos.
This was no one-man show, of course. Archie, Allsopp and Pondeljak all had great games going forward, while Roddy Vargas in his new hair-cut kept the backline solid. Kevin Muscat has given two outstanding performances in the finals this year. Michael Theoklitos had little to do for most of the 90 minutes but pulled off two phenomenal saves to keep a clean sheet.
In case you missed the game, or to relive the glory, you can watch it on YouTube here.
2 comments ↓
Carlos has to stay! How can they (the club) even think about letting him go. Withthe new teams coming up, Culina, Fowler, Chipperfield, etc, etc…Melbourne Victory has got to stay up there and keep up! Don’t let Carlos or Archie leave…so many rumours abound…not great for the fans…
What do they put in the water in Adelaide that makes their coaches go into melt down when Melbourne gives them a thrashing? Could you imagine Ernie railing against the city of Melbourne in similar circumstances – I think not.
I am sure the Nth/Sth ends will be able to make a new chant with “piss-ant town” for Adelaide’s next visit although I can’t see that being this year.
Great move by Merrick to start with Carlos and try kill the game off early though not even the most hopeful supporter could have imagined a 3:0 halftime scoreline and Carlo’s impact. It’s almost certain we will loose him next year so I hope Gary Cole has more scouts out and about; Fred – Carlos – ?????
As for the Grand Final, I think we will need to do even better than recent weeks. Recall the last game of the year against Wellington – a frustrating affair only really put to bed in the 89th minute with Archie’s goal. Prior to that the fans were getting agitated by our the lack of spark.
Despite winning the first leg of the finals 2:0 we were killed for time in possession but not hurt on the scoreboard because of Adelaide’s lack of ideas going forward. Even on Sat we had less possession in a 4:0 rout and there were many periods of minutes where we didn’t touch the ball. Thankfully when we had the ball in the past two matches we were in great touch going forward and the best attacking line in the business did their job splendidly. But let’s be honest, at the moment beating Adelaide is like beating your little brother – a bit meaningless – bring on the real challengers.
When we come up against Roar in the final (and I hope we do) it will be another matter altogether and we will need to lift the intensity and momentum that we have had over the past few weeks. I am confident that we can do it but the boys will need to be on their game.
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