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Adelaide’s slow start to the season continued as they fell 2-1 to the Jets at Coopers Stadium with Kew Jaliens and Adam Taggart sealing the points in front of the 10,244-strong crowd.
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| Gombau not happy with Adelaide's game yesterday. |
“We worked very hard during the week after watching them against Central Coast and the Wanderers”, van Egmond said.
“It was a lot of positional sense, knowing when to press and when not to press.
“They either drop their six (Isaias) between their stoppers or they don’t and if they don’t then their stoppers are pretty narrow and it’s hard to get the six on the ball,” he said.
The Jets coach was pleased with his side’s effort and felt his charges’ football was building towards a breakthrough performance.
“Maybe we could’ve got another one or two on the counter but it was a good performance on the back of two good performances in the past fortnight,” van Egmond said.
Contrastingly, United coach Josep Gombau had little to be pleased about after seeing all three points disappear in front of his home support.
“I’m unhappy with the result, I’m unhappy because we lost at home and I’m unhappy with the way we played,”Gombau said.
The Jets took the lead in the 41st minute after a defensive lapse from the Reds allowed Dutch import Kew Jaliens to blast home his first ever A-League goal.
Nathan Burns’ delivery from the corner was headed towards goal by Scott Neville but recently recalled Socceroo Michael Zullo was on-hand to push the ball away from the line. Jaliens was left unmarked after Neville’s header and had the simple task of dispatching the ball to ease pressure on head coach Gary van Egmond.
Another error cost United in the second half, this time coughing up possession in their defensive half allowing Hoole to break quickly and run at the Reds’ stoppers. Hoole slid the ball through to Taggart who easily outpaced Boogaard and scooped the ball over the onrushing Eugene Galekovic.
The 70th minute saw the introduction of Emile Heskey who replaced the impressive Adam Taggart for the Englishman’s first taste of A-League action since injuring his knee prior to Round 1. The Jets marquee man slotted seamlessly into the play and threatened to extend the visitors’ lead in the final 20 minutes.
Despite the Jets marquee man’s introduction, United found a lifeline through Fabio Ferreira after he latched onto Jeronimo Neumann’s cross to the back post. Former Red Mark Birighitti didn’t have much to do throughout the 90 minutes but there was nothing he could do about the goal as the Portuguese winger ghosted into position to angle his header just inside the post to wake the home crowd from its slumber.
In the dying stages, the match turned sour as Nigel Boogaard was given his marching orders by Stebre Delovski for a late slide tackle from behind which clattered Heskey. The straight red card was Boogaard’s fifth in the A-League and equals former Victory hardman Kevin Muscat’s league record for straight ejections.
Gombau doesn't seem to be in any hurry for his side to adapt to his style of play, but fans will fast become restless if their team continues to lose games.
Adelaide United: Galekovic (C), Boogaard, McKain, Malik, Jeronimo, Isaias, Cirio, Carrusca, Zullo, Elrich, Ferreira
Subs: Cassio, Djite, Mabil, Izzo
Newcastle Jets: Birighitti, Neville, Jaliens, Kantarovski, Hoole, Zadkovich (C), Burns, Chapman, Brillante, Gallaway, Taggart
Subs: Heskey, Pepper, Brown, Bridges, Kennedy