Rotated Wanderers Secure Draw Record

A rotated Wanderers lineup completed a second half-comeback to draw 2-2 in Adelaide, and in the process secured the A-League seasonal draw record with 12 draws.

Tony Popovic elected to bring back failed foreign players Aritz Borda & Bruno Pinatares, as well as giving places to Keanu Baccus, Abraham Majok, Mario Shabow, Stefan Zinni & Steven Lustica. The changes didn't help the Wanderers in the first half, as Adelaide took control of the game and grabbed the advantage after 8 minutes when Artiz Borda gave away a silly penalty with a diving tackle against Eli Babalj. Marcelo Carrusca stepped up to the stop and calmly sent Vedran Janjetovic the wrong way.

Just before half-time it went from bad to worse for the visitors as Adelaide profited from an offside goal to Dylan McGowan. Having failed to clear a corner, the ball bounced to Sergio Cirio who smashed the ball back across goal. Despite the Video Review system being in place, the man in the booth declined to overturn the clearly offside goal. It was the second mistake from the VAR booth, as they also let Iacopo La Rocca rugby tackle Ryan Griffiths in the penalty box but go unpunished.

Nico Martinez should have found a goal with two glorious chances. In the 18th minute he sent a curling shot centimetres wide, then in first half stoppage time had a penalty. La Rocca with a clear handball from a Shannon Cole cross, but Eugene Galekovic dived to his right to keep out the poorly taken, stutter step run-up penalty shot.

The Wanderers started their comeback after an hour, as Lustica thumped a free kick off the crossbar, with Delgado in the right place at the right time and heading into the empty net for 2-1.

La Rocca finally give away a much earned penalty in the 73rd minute as Cole was absolutely pole-axed and sent flying. With Nico off the field, Steven Lustica stepped up and took his penalty with aplomb, burying it in the corner. The last 10 could have gone either way, the final moments of the game seeing Adelaide denied a late winning goal for a correctly given offside call.

The Wanderers final position will depend on the final games of the round, while Adelaide have a couple of Asian Champions League matches to look forward to before their season is over.