How new-look Adelaide United remained same-old FFA Cup kings
The coach may have changed. But FFA Cup record-breaker Adelaide United still has the fight that made it the original knockout king, with a little Dutch polish thrown in.
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Gertjan Verbeek arrived at Adelaide United vowing to implement a high-tempo, possession-based game plan, moulded in the Dutch total football philosophy.
But first it took a bit of old-fashioned grit, as well as a teenager with the world at his feet, to land the Reds coach a trophy in just his seventh match on Australian soil.
United’s FFA Cup final thumping of Melbourne City at a packed Hindmarsh Stadium on Wednesday night was capped off with the free-flowing, attacking football Verbeek craves.
Initially however, it showed that an Adelaide side in transition still possessed the fighting qualities which had made it such a formidable proposition under departed manager Marco Kurz.
The Reds were far from pretty in a first half they had just 34 per cent of the ball.
Indeed, the visitors created as many as five decent openings in the first 20 minutes alone, largely through simple diagonal balls which caught Adelaide’s back four napping.
But a flash of brilliance from Ryan Strain and an audacious finish from teenage sensation Al Hassan Toure changed the momentum of the match and ultimately swung it the Reds way.
Full back Strain’s early ball down the right channel demonstrated the Aston Villa youth product’s vision.
It was the intelligence of the African-born front man’s run, coupled with a sublime near post finish from an acute angle, that really caught the eye.
Toure’s stunning emergence, which had garnered six goals in just his first seven first-team outings, vindicated another key ingredient in Verbeek’s blueprint.
In his maiden press conference as Reds mentor, the former Feyenoord chief said developing youngsters and exposing them to senior football was among his top priorities.
The continued inclusion of 19-year-old Toure, Strain (22) and midfielders Louis D’Arrigo (18) and Riley McGree (20) pointed to this.
Cup success, Adelaide’s third in the knockout competition’s six editions, came 12 months after Kurz achieved the same feat.
That night, Craig Goodwin’s superb brace had fired the SA club to a memorable triumph over Sydney FC.
But while the German’s contain and counter approach did not always satisfy the purists, it was highly successful and got the Reds to within a penalty kick of a grand final berth later in the campaign.
Under Verbeek, United had looked a more attack-minded outfit, even with 10 men against Sydney FC.
But it had failed to win either of its opening two A-League clashes and had leaked five goals in the process.
Early on, it looked like more of the same in the cup decider.
The home side was shaky at the back and tentative with the ball. Once they edged their noses in front however, the Reds grew in belief and never looked back.
Toure outmuscled Harrison Delbridge to start the move for Ben Halloran’s strike just after halftime.
By the time, Nikola Mileusnic had stroked in the third following another sweeping team move and SA-born hero McGree smashed home the fourth, United was flying.
And the swashbuckling second-half football, just as much as the opening period toil, would have doubtlessly delighted Verbeek.
Who says you can’t have both substance and style.