A-League: Perth Glory beat Adelaide United 2-0
Perth Glory have opened a nine point gap at the top of the A-League after they beat Adelaide United on Friday night.
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Perth Glory was once the role model club of the now defunct national soccer league.
Now 15 years after the death of the NSL, Glory which struggled to make any impact in the A-League is once again on the cusp of owning this competition.
Adelaide United fans on Friday night probably witnessed the new Premier’s Plate champion with five games still to play out before the finals series.
A sound players budget, super recruiting and a brilliant coach — Tony Popovic — is what had rejuvenated Glory and they taught United a 2-0 lesson.
Two mistakes was all it took to give Glory all points and open up a nine point gap at the top of the table before this weekend’s round is done.
Adelaide is now looking over its shoulder sitting in fifth spot, 20 points behind Glory after the visitors were gifted a crazy opener.
A misdirected long pass from Reds gloveman Paul Izzo resulted in the ultimate punishment when the clash was 35 minutes old.
Ivan Franjic intercepted the ball before finding the clever Spaniard Diego Castro.
Just as it appeared that Castro’s effort was heading for a wayward goal kick Scott Galloway looked on in disbelief as a wicked deflection off his legs wrong-footed Izzo for Glory’s opener.
Another poor pass this time from skipper Isaias when his effort was intercepted by dangerous substitute Andy Keogh killed any hope the Reds had of winning a first match in five starts.
Keogh stole the pass before it rolled to Michael Marrone, edged closer to goal before slotting the leather past Izzo to score his 13th goal of the season in the 70th minute.
Keogh’s clinical finish was in contrast to Adelaide.
The Reds did have chances a soft shot from Dutchman Jordy Thomassen in the 23rd minute summed up United’s impotence in front of goal.
The striker did have enough time to score his first goal for the club since he started five matches ago but again he drew blanks as Adelaide was pinned in its own half for much of the first 45 minutes.
When the Reds did manage to wriggle itself out of the Glory stranglehold, poor passing, meek finishing and wasteful corners allowed Perth to continue to relay the ball via measured systems to its extremely dangerous front men.
Chris Ikonomidis was causing Adelaide the most agony.
The attacker’s brilliant first touch and his ability to turn Reds defenders inside out deeply troubled Marco Kurz’s men.
Playing as a false nine Castro’s presence allowed Joel Chianese to work his magic in tight space.
On the stroke of halftime Izzo thwarted a powerful Chianese header with a fine save before Kurz had seen enough.
Unleashing Nikola Mileusnic off the bench at the start of the second half for Nathan Konstandopoulos immediately unbalanced Glory.
Craig Goodwin moved into midfield from the wing and within seconds of the restart tested the strong hands of goalkeeper Liam Reddy with a 30m thunderbolt.
Mileusnic was planted on the right wing and Ryan Kitto was on the left but it was Ikonomidis firing another warning shot in the 58th minute from 20m into the gloves of Izzo.
Adelaide forced a fifth corner on the hour which was totally wasted as the ball was continually shifted backwards in a bid to draw Glory out of its five man defensive block.
United’s better chances were fashioned in the counter attack before Kurz decided Dane Ken Ilso could be the man to unlock Glory in the 63rd minute when he replaced Thomassen.
A-LEAGUE
Adelaide United 0 Perth Glory 2 (OG 35m, Andy Keogh) at Coopers Stadium — Referee: Peter Green — Crowd: 7853.
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