Adelaide, Heart share spoils

Adelaide United and Melbourne Heart were forced to share the spoils despite each team leading at one stage as the clubs tangled in a 2-2 contest.

The newly-acquired Melbourne Heart took to the pitch for the first time since the club was purchased English giants Manchester City was announced and there was more than a little Premier League flavour on show, as the new addition to City’s growing international brand faced a team in red going by the name ‘United’.

This United side may not have quite the same reputation of scoring late in matches like their Manchester counterparts, but Ryan Griffiths managed a 90th-minute equaliser that was vital for Adelaide manager Josep Gombau as it gave his Adelaide side a 2-2 draw and kept his team in finals contention.

Bruce Djite’s goal in the 22nd minute gave United a lead they managed to hold onto until the hour mark when Nigel Boogaard clattered Mate Dugandzic to concede a penalty and breathe life into the visiting side.

Captain Harry Kewell made no mistake from the spot, sending Eugene Galekovic the wrong way to bring the scores back to one apiece.

Another set piece was all it took for the Heart to take a hold of the game as a needless foul by Isaias allowed former Red Iain Ramsay to deliver a pinpoint cross to Patrick Kisnorbo who headed into the back of the net.

The Heart looked like they were going to snatch all three points and impress their new owners with a come-from-behind victory until Ryan Griffiths intervened with his first goal for Adelaide from Marcelo Carrusca’s 90th-minute corner.

Gombau was upset with his side’s performance and felt his side should not be dropping points at home with the Reds having won just four of their nine home games so far this season.

"I think we need to profit from playing at home," Gombau said.

"The result was fair because today we didn’t have a very good game.

"We didn’t find the style we want to play, they made it difficult for us."

The spotlight has been firmly on the Heart  since late this week when the Manchester City takeover was reported, however, coach John van’t Schip had no fears that the extra attention would unsettle his players prior to the match.

"Of course there was a lot of attention around the sale of the club and Manchester City taking over,” van’t Schip said.

"We even had a chance to go away with three points, but looking at the complete game 2-2 is the right result, although when you are leading with five minutes to go you should take the three points home."

The Reds now face an interesting clash away to Wellington while the Heart will hope to quickly get back to winning ways at home against Sydney FC.




Adelaide United: 1.Eugene GALEKOVIC (GK) (c), 3.Nigel BOOGAARD, 4.Jon McKAIN, 5.Osama MALIK, 7.JERONIMO, 8.ISAIAS, 10.Marcelo CARRUSCA, 11.Bruce DJITE, 13.Steven LUSTICA, 14.Cameron WATSON, 17.Awer MABIL, 20.Paul IZZO (GK), 21.Tarek ELRICH, 22.Fabio FERREIRA, 23.Jordan ELSEY, 31.Ryan GRIFFITHS


Melbourne Heart: 1.Andrew REDMAYNE (GK), 3.Robbie WIELAERT, 4.Orlando ENGELAAR, 7.Iain RAMSAY, 8.Massimo MURDOCCA, 10.Harry KEWELL (C), 11.Michael MIFSUD, 16.Aziz BEHICH, 17.Jason HOFFMAN, 18.David VRANKOVIC, 19.Benjamin GARUCCIO, 20.Tando VELAPHI (GK), 21.Stefan MAUK, 22.Nick KALMAR, 23.Mate DUGANDZIC, 24.Patrick KISNORBO