National Premier League SA opening round: Croydon big winner against Adelaide City, South coughs up two-goal lead
Croydon shocks traditional National Premier League soccer powerhouse Adelaide City, a goalkeeper gets sent off and Olympic produces a thrilling comeback. All that and more in our wrap of SA Premier League soccer’s opening round.
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Croydon shocks traditional National Premier League powerhouse Adelaide City in just one of the upsets, a goalkeeper gets sent off and a thrilling comeback is produced.
Read Messenger Community News’ match reports on all the opening round action.
CROYDON 4
ADELAIDE CITY 0
It was not a good debut for new Adelaide City coach Michael Matricciani as his new side copped a 4-0 thrashing by Croydon Kings at Adelaide City Park on Saturday.
Peter Mercurio, Antoni Trimboli and debutant Nathan Munro were the scorers for the Kings, while the fourth came from an own goal to City’s Tomas Maricic.
Croydon coach Angelo Costanzo was delighted with the result and praised his team’s effort.
“I am very happy for the boys and the club,” Costanzo said.
“We have brought in five new players to the side this year and it was a great first-up performance.
“All four of the goals were good and resulted in good build-up plays.
“All of the 11 that started played their roles and performed well.”
ADELAIDE UNITED YOUTH 2
RAIDERS 0
Raiders coach Nik Kuzman was full of praise for his side despite it going down 2-0 to Adelaide United youth in the opening round at home on Saturday.
Gepps Cross-based Raiders were promoted to the top flight this season after beating Adelaide Blue Eagles 3-1 in September’s State League One grand final, breaking a 16-year title drought.
Raiders had more opportunities to score early in the game but failed to capitalise on the pressure.
They were made to pay when United went ahead in the 33rd minute before sealing the result in the dying stages of the match.
“We took a lot of positives out of the game and we had a lot of chances but we didn’t put them away while Adelaide United were able to make the most of their opportunities,” Kuzman said.
Alhassan Toure (33rd minute) and Domenic Costanzo (93rd) scored United’s goals.
METROSTARS 2
PARA HILLS 1
Para Hills opened its campaign with a 2-1 home loss to MetroStars on Saturday.
Peter Eleftherakis equalised for the Knights in the 53rd minute but MetroStars went ahead again six minutes later and held on from there to take all three points.
Hamish Gow scored during extra-time in the first half for MetroStars, while Dylan Smith netted the winner on the hour.
ADELAIDE COMETS 2
WEST ADELAIDE 1
At Jack Smith Park on Saturday, it was Adelaide Comets that finished with the three points after a 2-1 victory over West Adelaide.
Lewis Farquhar and Andreas Wiens both netted for Comets, while Perry Mitris was the solo goal scorer for Hellas.
ADELAIDE OLYMPIC 3
SOUTH ADELAIDE 2
South Adelaide went down 3-2 to Adelaide Olympic in a thrilling opening round encounter at the Parks on Saturday.
Olympic produced a remarkable comeback to take home the three points after the Panthers squandered a 2-0 lead.
South opened the scoring at the 36 minute mark of the first half after a deflection from Olympic’s Thomas Brown and went up 2-0 following a brilliant individual effort by Liam Wooding early in the second half.
Wooding, the Panthers’ star recruit after joining from MetroStars, got into a perfect position and finished off in style.
South coach Ben Dale was disappointed to lose the lead but praised his side’s endeavour.
“The result was disappointing, our inexperience showed in the end as we weren’t able to hold them out late in the game,” Dale said.
“You must maintain focus and concentration for the full 90 minutes in this competition.”
ADELAIDE BLUE EAGLES 3
CAMPBELLTOWN CITY 2
Adelaide Blue Eagles coach Vojo Gluscevic reckons Campbelltown City was the better team in the clubs’ opening-round clash at Steve Woodcock Sports Centre on Friday night, even though his side prevailed 3-2.
Alemayo Kebede scored a header in the 94th minute from a well-executed corner to seal a thrilling victory for newly-promoted ABE.
Campbelltown City had played much of the match with 10 men following Nick Harpas’s sending off nine minutes in and led 2-1 before Stefan Gluscevic equalised on 86 minutes.
Kebede secured all three points for the visitors eight minutes later.
“Even though we won the game, I feel as though we were lucky as Campbelltown City were the better team on the night,” Gluscevic said.
City was unlucky not to pick up a point following a strong performance from back-up keeper Jamie Signorello.
Red Devils coach Joe Mullen was proud of his team considering the challenge it faced.
He was full of praise for his young keeper Signorello, who stepped up superbly in the absence of Harpas.
“For a 17-year-old-kid to step up like he did and help us to almost take away a point from the game was an unbelievable effort and I was very proud of Jamie and the rest of the players,” Mullen said.
STATE LEAGUE ONE RESULTS:
Cumberland United 3 d Salisbury United 0
Western Strikers 2 d Sturt Lions 0
White City 2 d West Torrens Birkalla
Modbury Jets 5 d Noarlunga United 1
Fulham United 2 d Playford City 1
Seaford Rangers 4 d Adelaide Victory 2
STATE LEAGUE TWO RESULTS:
Adelaide Cobras 4 d Mount Barker United 1
The Cove 5 d UniSA 1
Adelaide Hills 3 d Adelaide University 1
Pirates 4 d Northern Demons 0
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