Posts Tagged ‘gold coast’

Smeltz heads Adelaideover the edge

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

If there was one moment when you just felt certain Adelaide United was going to record a shock away win on the Gold Coast, it arrived in the 47th minute.

When Jet-heeled teen star Matthew Leckie sprinted from deep in the Reds attacking half to tackle Jason Culina five yards out from the Adelaide goal, not only did it deny the Goald Coast skipper a certain goal, it set a bar for the rest of the team to aspire to.

From then on Adelaide looked REASONABLY comfortably and fully deserved to win, but ultimately it was the same old story, an inability to score, and the Reds have one more chance to keep themselves in play-off contention.

Dodd had chances, so did Leckie, Cristiano and others, but as we have seen this so often this season none were converted and Adelaide paid the ultimate price

Travis Dodd’s goal so nearly made the difference, but its construction also demonstrated the regards Matthew Leckie is held in.

In supplying the pass for Dodd to score his first goal from open play this season, three Gold Coast defenders were drawn to him leaving Dodd unmarked to angle his shot past van Stratten.

It would have been easy to imagine Adelaide just shutting up shop from there but after rather comfortably negotiating to remainder of the first half, Aurelio Vidmar had time to plot the expected onslaught from the home team.

But aside from Culina’s chance there wasn’t really much of an onslaught.

 Not only did Vidmar cope with the loss of Iain Fyfe just four minutes into the second half, but he also nullified the Coast wide men and as a result the pressure on the United rear-guard was managed ALMOST to perfection.

 Just a little space was all Jason Culina needed to fire in a wonderful cross for Shane Smeltz to head home from a tricky angle deep into injury time.

The effect that goal has on the Reds remains to be seen but providing a crumb of comfort is that the Mariners are on a shocking run and won’t be fancying the trip to Adelaide on Friday night.

That said, the Mariners also need a win and know that United’s confidence is fragile at best.

At this early stage, Fyfe looks likely to miss the crucial clash, and Reid may force his way back in, but based on what we saw there’s no real need to change much more.

Dodd, Leckie, Cassio and Marrone looked confident up until Smeltz’s killer goal and Rudan and Mullen look good enough at the back.

So bring on Friday, because until the numbers say so Adelaide can’t give up, but based on what we saw on the Gold Coast, Smeltz’s equaliser may have been the fatal blow.

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It was the same old story

Saturday, November 21st, 2009

 

You can’t argue with the numbers.

Nineteen shots on goal to four, six shots on target to two, 40 (yes 40) penalty box entries to 20 and 12 corners to five.

Throw in 62% possession in the first half which included 68% in the opposition half, and playing for an hour against 10 men and you could be forgiven thinking that one team thrashed another in a game of football.

But think that and you’d be wrong because it was the same old story for Adelaide United.

So much possession, so many shots, so little reward.

A point was better than nothing and there’s no way Adelaide deserved to lose, but they also could not afford to not win.

Two more points dropped and despite changing the team around, you have to ask is Aurelio Vidmar any closer to knowing what his best 11 is?

Leckie and Dodd aided by the recalled Cassio, Pantelis and Sarkies caused massive problems for Gold Coast in the high intensity first half.

But by their own admission United knew they couldn’t play like that for the entire 90 minutes and so there must have been some disappointment that the first half was scoreless especially with the Coast down to ten men from the 34th minute.

More about that later.

Predictably Adelaide lost its way a little after half time and sure enough conceded a  goal.

Credit to them that they didn’t give up, but for how long can they rely on a 19 year old to save them?

For how long can Lloyd Owusu be kept in the Youth League?

And for how long can Vidmar say he is satisfied with a performance  when once again his team has not put a score on the score-board that the statistics suggest they should have done?

No pressure, Vimdar says, insisting it goes with the turf when results are not going their way.

And it’s clear, the rub of the green does not favour Adelaide at the moment.

Those lose balls you see pinging around in the penalty area are not falling kindly for Adelaide, and opposition players are not being sent off when they could easily be seeing red.

You could argue that the Kristian Rees was unlucky to be sent off as he did get a foot on the ball, but if that offence warranted a red card then how come debutant Zac Anderson didn’t follow him down the tunnel?
You could day referee Chris Beath got it wrong on both counts.

Either way Adelaide couldn’t capitalise and needed an injury time goal to rescue a point.

And disturbingly you could see times when the players did not know where to run or how to play in their position.

Why?

Because each time Vidmar changes the line-up and formation in his search for a winning combination, the player’s understanding of what to do during a game can suffer.

Seeing Alemao bawl out Matthew Leckie late in the second half as the youngster tried to find his place Adelaide switched to a 3-4-3 formation showed that the player’s are not all on the same wavelength.

Based on that, how can Adelaide progress this season when trying to work out what it’s best 11 is and what formation is best to play?

Vidmar remains convinced that eventually the luck will change as long as the effort is there.

He may be right but the fact is the games are beginning to run out.

Something has to give.

Let’s hope for the sake of Vidmar’s head that on-field fortunes are the first to change for the better.

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The same old story?

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

 

Aurelio Vidmar says he’s not feeling the pressure, and neither for that matter are his players.

He also says the only way to silence the fast growing number of critics is to start winning games.

And with just six home games left, that means starting on Friday night against the Gold Coast.

But how many times have we said that, that Adelaide has start wining games now?

Probably about as many times as Aurelio Vidmar has said something like, the team has had a great week on the track; it’s just about taking it into a game.

This was what he said today:

“The last couple of weeks we’ve changed it up a little bit and got them a bit more refreshed and we’ve worked quite hard on finishing and making sure we’re doing that under pressure and it has worked quite well. Now it’s about making sure we translate what we’ve done at training onto the pitch.”

It’s a familiar comment from the embattled Reds coach but one that sounds less convincing every time he says it.

Vidmar didn’t sound too convincing either when asked whether he and the team are under pressure.

It was a one word answer, “No,” but the half giggle which accompanied it suggests there must be some doubts in Vidmar’s head.

 And if that unconvincing response doesn’t suggest he’s feeling the pressure, then his latest verbal gaffe might do

After all, it’s not the first time.

From the “pissant town”rant , to rather publicly bollocking certain players, (Sarkies & Bajic to name just two), Vidmar today when questioned whether he was too soft on players, responded with a suggestion that maybe instead he should chop off their heads “like they do in Saudi Arabia.”

 Vidmar later apologised for his latest case of foot in mouth disease, but  with the AFC Champions League draw just around the corner, he will be hoping that United doesn’t end up facing a team from there.

Of course that could only happen if United got through the group stages, which on current form is not looking likely.

But apology or not this gaffe, and the way the exchange with the journalist was handled suggested Vidmar is feeling the pressure.

And why shouldn’t he be?

John Kosmina has put his oar in this week saying that the punters are getting restless on the terraces and the team is “lacking direction”.

Direction of course comes from the top

In response Vidmar says everyone is entitled to their opinion, and rightly so, but it’s not like he is a 20 year veteran of coaching.

It has to hurt a little.

And what will hurt more is knowing that all the good performances in the world won’t change anything unless the goals start going in.

And that will be difficult if as it appears the player’s are not doing it for him on the park.

 As Vidmar has said, he can’t score the goals, so what can he do?

But that’s not the question, the question is, why aren’t the players doing it for him?

Are some of them not motivated to do so?

Or are they just bereft of confidence?

Talk to a few people and they will tell you the players will play when they want to play.

They motivate themselves, and seemingly don’t go out into a game inspired by what the coach has told them.

There’s even talk that if new owners come in then Vidmar will be gone.

Of course it will be some time before new owners come in and by then Vidmar may have turned the team around.

So it’s just one step at a time, starting with the Gold Coast.

It won’t be easy, but the first step never is.

Either way in 24 hours we’ll know whether it was the same old story.

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plans schmans!

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

There isn’t much point in having a plan if the players don’t really believe that they are good enough to carry it out.

Adelaide coach Aurelio Vidmar said he had a plan to beat the Gold Coast, it was just a matter of going onto the pitch and making it work.

The loss of Paul Reid (abductor strain) certainly would not have helped, and “Viddy” did indeed change things by playing three at the back and trying to clog up midfield.

The trouble was, by their own admission, Adelaide  for the first 60 minutes was “timid”,  “couldn’t retain the ball”, “lacked self belief”, and was “not desperate enough.”

Why, well not even Vidmar had an answer, but maybe Adelaide got caught up in the hype and paid Gold Coast too much respect.

 Travis Dodd summed it up well when he said; “We’ve played better and quicker opponents in the Asian Champions League , so maybe we bought into the hype too much.”

But whichever way you look at it, the Gold Coast outclassed Adelaide and it was only when the league leaders  scored their second that Adelaide played some football, or was it that they were allowed to play?

Whatever the real reason, Adelaide did they put Gold Coast under some real pressure, as Vidmar emptied the bench in bringing on attacking trio Lloyd Owusu, Shin and Fabian Barbiero.

Adelaide certainly created several chances in the final half hour, but like they have in every game this season, they lack composure in the penalty box.

Either the shooting was wayward or the players wanted a touch too many.

 Vidmar wants his players to hit the ball first time when they are in the penalty area, but he remains confident that what we are seeing right now is just teething problems.

And he could be right.

Lloyd Owusu made a difference when he came on, holding up the ball well,  bringing others into play and setting up some chances.

Shin also made some promising runs and was certainly more effective than last week against Sydney.

Barbiero’s impact was less obvious, but if he can recapture that all-action box-to-box running game we saw last season then he will effectively be Adelaide’s Jason Culina.

But ultimately in Round 3 of the A-League the difference between the two teams was quite obvious.

The Gold Coast has some class finishers and is playing its best football, whereas Adelaide is very much a work in progress and has a number of players still a little unsure if they are good enough to play in this league.

 There are still of course 24 game to go, but remember Adelaide has five of its first seven at home and two of those have been played for a one win one loss record, with just one goal scored, from the penalty spot.

North Queensland come to town next week, and based on their game against Gold Coast, Adelaide should win easily.

They need to.

So maybe it’s a good time to be playing them…then again, maybe  a match against a team you’re expected to win isn’t what Adelaide needs right now.

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The best laid plans.

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

Don’t expect a  shoot-out at Hindmarsh when the Gold Coast rolls in to Hindmarsh.

Because if Aurelio Vidmar’s plans are executed by his red clad warriors, the newest United just won’t be allowed the space both Brisbane and the Fury afforded them over the past fortnight.

And if that plan is successful, this round three blockbuster will be played more on Adelaide’s terms; in other words not built around being prolific scorers.

It simply can’t be until Owusu, Barbiero, and Sarkies are fit enough to provide the potent edge to United’s play.

Prior to the final training session Vidmar rated Owusu a 50/50 chance for a spot on the bench but even if he does see some action, it would unfair to expect “Hang Time” to work miracles straight away.

So that means you can expect Adelaide to try and suffocate the Coast midfield first and then try and break forward quickly.

What may be a problem for Vidmar is the absence of Paul Reid who will miss the match because of abductor soreness.

He was the best option to nullify Culina and deny him the space and time to ping long range passes at Smeltz and Porter that Vidmar is so wary of.

Not that Adelaide’s back four is likely to push up as high as the Fury did last week which allowed Smeltz plenty of space to run into.

So with Reid out, who gets that task of stifling Culina?

Hughes would be the obvious choice as he plays like Reid’s stunt double, but with Cassio recovered from flu and Marrone looking solid at right back, why not Alemao?

This would allow Hughes to continue screening the back four.

Marrone also has the pedigree for the job but may be a little inexperienced.

Somehow Vidmar has to balance blanketing Culina, Porter and Smeltz while still creating some goal scoring chances.

Yes that does sound obvious, but so far this season, United has scored just one goal—from the penalty spot—and it is their only meaningful shot on target.

Based on those numbers, even if United has a “day out” it’s hard to see them scoring any more than twice, but they can certainly restrict the new bling boys.

Their coach Miron Bleiburg has reportedly labeled Aurelio Vidmar “Mr Average,” which while not a worry to United’s young coach, does in his words “denigrate the rest of the A-League coaches.”

Bleiburg also apparently isn’t expecting Adelaide to try and take on his team at their own game, but as discussed, United know they can’t currently match them in that way so why would they.

And while happy to be written off by most pundits as being a serious championship threat, what Vidmar says he does have is and is happy about is a “pretty good” plan to survive this “big test” and win the game.

“It’s just a matter of putting it together on the park,” he suggests.

From memory Vidmar said something similar last week, and despite a brave performance, Sydney’s overall edge in quality prevailed.

But as he acknowledges, a serious component of the front half of his team is yet to play this season.

“We’re a little bit different and we’ll play to our strengths, but I’m confident in our group that we can get results.”

That typically unambiguous quote leaves little doubt as to how United will approach the game.

A similar scenario to Sydney could unfold against Gold Coast, but with a near capacity crowd cheering Adelaide on, they should at least get a result.

And if they do I can’t wait for the past-match press conference.

 

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