Adelaide United hold Victory to sixth draw of the season

In the tenth round of the Hyundai A-League, Melbourne Victory failed to secure all three points as a late Fabian Barbiero strike condemned the home side to their sixth draw of the season.

The Victory were up and running early in the opening stages as it took them only sixty seconds to have their first golden opportunity at goal as Archie Thompson played a magnificent through ball to Harry Kewell, whos effort was straight at the feet of Eugene Galekovic. Only moments later, the Adelaide United goalkeeper almost gifted Victory the lead after fumbling a Hernandez free-kick into the path of Celeski whos effort on goal was well blocked by Galekovic , who showed great awareness.

Victory continued to maintain much of the possession, as the visitors were happy to sit back and try and hit their hosts on the counter. Despite the tactics, both sides struggled to assert any authority on the game.

The game came to life midway through the half for all the wrong reasons, as a scuffle between Kewell and Caravella caused a small melee with no cards shown by referee Peter Green.

With the half-time whistle looming, Kewell was handed another golden opportunity to open the scoring this time taking advantage of a failed clearance by Boogard. With Galekovic well off his line, Kewell attempted an audacious lob which the keeper responded with a stretching fingertip save.

Despite a bright start to the second half by United, it was Victory who opened the scoring against the run of play, as Brazilian left-back Fabio delivered a delightful cross which was met in the box by Victory front man Thompson whos great header left Galekovic with no chance.

The goal seemed to give the home side plenty of confidence going forward as Kewell was left with only Galekovic to beat after another great delivery by Hernandez, the former Liverpool player wasted another great chance as his strike was well off target.

In the 66th minute, the in-form Archie Thompson twisted and turned in the Adelaide area before unleashing a shot heading for the bottom left-hand corner only to be denied by a great save from the former Victory shot stopper.

With eight minutes remaining, the visitors were back on level terms after a beautiful passing game by Caravella and Van Dijk led to Barbiero’s accurate left footed strike.

Right off the kick off, the home side almost responded immediately as a Rojas low cross was deflected to the back post which left Kewell in a very tight angle and he could only manage to hit the post.

In injury time, Melbourne Victory had a late opportunity to steal all three points, as a low cross by Kewell was not met by three players in the six-yard box.

The draw is the Victory’s sixth of the season, more than any other side in the A-League, while Rini Coolen Adelaide will leave Melbourne happy that they gained a point.


The Football Sack Player of the Year votes -

1- Archie Thompson
2- Zenon Caravella
3- Eugene Galekovic

MV – Ante COVIC, Matthew FOSCHINI, FABIO, Leigh BROXHAM, Peter FRANJIC, Archie THOMPSON, Diogo FERREIRA (Marco ROJAS 76th min), Billy CELESKI (Grant BREBNER 46th min), Carlos HERNANDEZ, Harry KEWELL, Adrian LEIJER. Subs not used –Daniel ALLSOPP, Lawrence THOMAS.

AU – Eugene GALEKOVIC, Osama MALIK (Dario VIDOSIC 36th min), Nigel BOOGARD, Jonathan MCKAIN, Daniel MULLEN (Cameron WATSON 66th min), Zenon CARAVELLA, Serginho VAN DIJK, Bruce DJITE (Milan SUSAK 89th min), Iain RAMSAY, Fabian BARBIERO, Francisco USUCAR. Subs not used – Mark BRIGHITTI.