By Andrew McGarry
Posted
Adelaide United have increased their lead at the top of the A-League ladder, putting more pressure on Sydney FC with a late goal to seal a 2-1 win at the Sydney Football Stadium on Friday night.
It was an entertaining match, and John Kosmina's men could have won by more, with officials incorrectly ruling out a first-half goal by Marcelo Carrusca for offside.
There was plenty of action at both ends, with the visitors starting much the better.
Twelve minutes in, the Reds opened up Sydney's vulnerable defence with a great through ball to Carrusca, and the midfielder smashed the ball past Ivan Necevski for what looked like the opener.
The referees' assistant ruled it out for offside, but replays showed that Carrusca was clearly onside.
Eight minutes later United made amends, when the Reds placed a perfect pass to Dario Vidosic, who flicked the ball clear to Fabio Ferreira for the Portuguese midfielder to make no mistake with a cool finish.
The Sky Blues rebounded after the poor start, and began to put some moves together.
Alessandro Del Piero was the familiar driving force behind most of Sydney's attacks, and he nearly had success after 37 minutes, when his dipping free-kick was tipped over the bar by Eugene Galekovic.
Sydney started the second half the stronger, and the visitors found themselves under serious pressure.
The home side made their advantage count with more than half an hour to go, as a fantastic through ball by Pascal Bosschart set Yairo Yau free down the left.
The Panamanian striker streaked clear before coolly placing the ball wide of Galekovic into the corner of the net for the equaliser.
Sydney's Jason Culina received a standing ovation in the 67th minute when he came on as a sub for his first appearance in 22 months.
As time ticked down, however, United began to reassert themselves, and looked the more likely to grab a winner.
In the 88th minute, the inevitable happened, when Dario Vidosic followed up a shot by Nigel Boogaard which hit the crossbar to volley the ball home for the crucial goal.
The win puts Adelaide (19 points) five points clear of the nearest challenger Central Coast Mariners.
Galekovic told Grandstand it was a tough encounter.
"Sydney's last (on the ladder) but they don't deserve to be there," Galekovic said.
"They're tough to beat away from home."
He rejected suggestions Adelaide were simply a grind-it-out side.
"I think we do play some good football," he said.
"Look at the offside goal, there was some beautiful football there.
"Today we had to grind it out ... but we got the goal we needed."
Sydney midfielder Terry Antonis told Grandstand his team was very disappointed with the result, which leaves them anchored at the foot of the ladder with just two wins from eight games.
"We had plenty of chances," he said.
"We played well at times, they (Adelaide) went down three times and they scored two goals.
"We've got to keep working on our game, and we'll start getting the results."
Adelaide 2 (Ferreira 20', Vidosic 88')
Sydney FC 1 (Yau 56')
Topics: sport, soccer, sydney-2000, nsw, adelaide-5000, sa, australia
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