Red Card Leads To Draw In Adelaide

[mack]

Adelaide United locked down the A-League finals positions, ending Wellington Phoenix's hopes with a 2-2 draw, the game changing when Tass Mourdoukoutas was sent from the field in the first half with the score 2-1 in the favour of the Wanderers.

While the finals charge is over, the Western Sydney Wanderers took on Adelaide United in South Australia, with the Wanderers hoping to avoid a FFA Cup play-off with a win and Adelaide needing at least a draw to secure their place in the A-League finals. Keanu Baccus made what might be his last appearance for the club with Hungarian giants Ferencvaros said to have finalised a long-awaited European transfer for the midfield, with the club netting a large transfer fee in the process.

Adelaide began in dominant fashion, with Loius D'Arrigo getting a shot off that forced Daniel Margush into a diving save. The home side were getting behind the Wanderers defence at will and Ryan Strain forced an own goal out of Ziggy Gordon to open the scoring, his simple cross back into the middle was no real threat until Gordon failed to properly clear it, the ball rebounding off his knee to make it 1-0 in the 10th minute.

The Wanderers hit back in the 21st minute. After a 15 pass build up, Tom Aquilina found open space on Adelaide's right flank, driving into the defensive area then pulling the ball back across the middle of the penalty area. It found Kamau and his first time shot was wildly inaccurate, unfortunately for Adelaide it found the feet of Ryan Strain and deflected toward the back post, rolling home to make it 1-1.

Adelaide were shocked, having lost all their momentum they also lost the lead in the 29th minute. An inability to clear the ball at a corner eventually saw Ben Halloran about to start a counter, and instead he was dispossessed by Gordon on the sideline, playing it off Halloran to win a throw. He took it quickly, starting another attack that Adelaide once again failed to clear, Baccus put it into an area, it came off a head in the area, came to Graham Dorrans, bought it from his right foot onto his left, swung the left foot at the volley and it rifled into the bottom corner with the keeper no chance.

The period of Wanderers dominance was ended in the 34th minute, Craig Goodwin crossed over the penalty area and gave Halloran an header from an acute angle, with Gordon coming across to make it tough, Halloran aimed it down for the corner only to nod it wide. It was a tough chance and perhaps going back into the 6 yard box was the better option.

Even though Adelaide were behind on the scoreboard their hopes in the game received a massive boost in the 35th minute as Tass Mourdoukoutas was given his marching orders for a poor tackle on D'Arrigo. The pair came together for a poorly placed pass from Stain, Mourdoukoutas came flying in with a raised boot, collecting D'Arrigo to send him flying. Referee Alex King showing no hesitation in pulling out a straight red and after a short VAR delay that was never going to save him, Mourdoukoutas stomped off down the Hindmarsh Stadium tunnel. Adelaide couldn't convert their advantage before the half-time whistle sounded, requiring them to make up their deficit in the final 45.

Adelaide came out for the second half by bringing on Tomi Juric, but they couldn't find a clear chance in the first 5. The Wanderers on the other hand counter-attacked, Kamau finding a rushing Aqulina and he smashed a shot into the corner of the crossbar. Adelaide went down the other end and Goodwin fired a swerving, fast shot that nearly had Margush beat until he shifted his weight and made a remarkable save, at some cost, as he suffered what appeared to be a back injury, while Aquila had been laid out in the build up by Mauk elbowing him in the head. Both players stayed down for several minutes.

Not long after the injury stoppage Adelaide bought the game back level. Halloran lofted an apparently aimless ball into the middle of the penalty box and the Wanderers defence turned to statues. Gordon could have easily cleared the ball and instead he apparently expected Margush to rush out to claim it when the keeper was staying on his line, it slipped between the pair and Aquilina was caught ball watching, Goodwin lashed at the ball with his left food and beat Margush at the near post. It was a catalogue of error's typical to the Wanderers poor defending this season and being down to 10 men had nothing to do with it.

Going into the last 20 with rain pouring down both teams threw caution to the wind, going back and forth with attackers and having to scramble back to defend. Josh Cavallo tried a long range effort that stung the palms of Margush, and D'Arrigo had an on-target shot blocked by the defence.

The Wanderers should have taken a shock lead in the 82nd minute after a horror error from James Delianov in the Adelaide goal. He attempted to play out from the back from a wide position but his central pass was intercepted by newly arrived Jordon Mutch. With an apparent open goal beckoning Mutch delayed to take a second touch and his aim was errant, allowing Delianov to rescue the situation to knock it out for a corner.

Halloran went close to putting Adelaide in front in the 85th minute, a left side counter attack ended with a cross over the defence, Halloran's side footed volley flashing wide into the side netting, confusing some of the crowd who thought he'd put it away.

Adelaide closed out the match by holding the ball in the Wanderers defensive half for the 5 minutes of stoppage time, and while they couldn't find a last minute winner they did enough to secure their A-League Finals position. The first half was dramatic, and the second half followed the template for a 11v10 match. As usual, the Wanderers players were all smiles after the final whistle, having closed out the A-League season and the club's fourth season in a row without finals football. It remains to be seen if the owners will pull the trigger on Robinson's sacking after his dismal attempt at leading the club but the signs seem to be pointing to him getting another crack in the 2021/22 season. Without a major turn around in his foreign player recruitment and his tactical decisions it might prove to be a short reprieve.

If Perth Glory manage to defeat Newcastle on Saturday evening, then the Wanderers will be faced with an FFA Cup qualifying play-off game against Newcastle in the next two weeks. If Perth draw or lose, then the Wanderers will avoid the play-off, and return to the A-League for the 2021/22 season later in the year.

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[Smoggy]

God, the thought of that FFA cup qualifying game is ******* depressing. Needs to be avoided.

[sonar]

We are now into our 4th seasons of mediocrity.....I am not a very religious person but lord give me strength......

[mack]

8 minutes ago, sonar said:

We are now into our 4th seasons of mediocrity.....I am not a very religious person but lord give me strength......

5th. I don't count the Jumpei penalty failure year as being anything but mediocre. 

[sonar]

1 minute ago, mack said:

5th. I don't count the Jumpei penalty failure year as being anything but mediocre. 

I agree but if utter failure and mediocrity is not making the finals then 4. 

[Davo]

Salary capped league and one of the biggest support bases in the competition. Just finished bottom half of the table for the fifth year in a row and six out of the last seven seasons.

[ZachMercer]

34 minutes ago, Davo said:

Salary capped league and one of the biggest support bases in the competition. Just finished bottom half of the table for the fifth year in a row and six out of the last seven seasons.

Fuc*king sad state of affairs.

[StringerBellend]

2 hours ago, mack said:

5th. I don't count the Jumpei penalty failure year as being anything but mediocre. 

That season was mediocre, we haven’t achieved the dizzying heights of mediocrity since. We have been total **** since then, I dream of mediocrity 

 

[wendybr]

2 hours ago, sonar said:

We are now into our 4th seasons of mediocrity.....I am not a very religious person but lord give me strength......

Only 3 more years to go to match SFC's 7 years in "Seventh Heaven"...or in the doldrums at least.

[StringerBellend]

2 minutes ago, wendybr said:

Only 3 more years to go to match SFC's 7 years in "Seventh Heaven"...or in the doldrums at least.

Aren’t we supposed to be happy with that? Little struggling club with no resources that we are 

[MathyouWSW]

Well...back to the drawing board and to see how the club is going to fix this mess.

[sonar]

Two games against Adelaide where we miss an open goal to win a match but end up with a draw.......Troisi the first one and Mutch the second. There's four points lost and one of the reasons we aren't playing finals......poor player skills on show when it matters.

[Smoggy]

6 hours ago, wendybr said:

Only 3 more years to go to match SFC's 7 years in "Seventh Heaven"...or in the doldrums at least.

Didn’t someone post some stats not too long ago that showed ESFC have missed the finals no more then 2 or 3 times since 2002?

 

[marron]

Yeah 7th heaven was about them putting out celebratory del piero merch when they didn't make the finals that season wasnt it?

(although if they only missed 3 finals since 2002 that would mean they made all of them since they only started in 2005 )

[MartinTyler]

1 hour ago, sonar said:

Two games against Adelaide where we miss an open goal to win a match but end up with a draw.......Troisi the first one and Mutch the second. There's four points lost and one of the reasons we aren't playing finals......poor player skills on show when it matters.

Wasn't that Ibini in the first draw or did we miss 2 open goals?

[Smoggy]

1 hour ago, marron said:

Yeah 7th heaven was about them putting out celebratory del piero merch when they didn't make the finals that season wasnt it?

(although if they only missed 3 finals since 2002 that would mean they made all of them since they only started in 2005 )

You are more switched on than me on a morning Marron.... Yeah 2005 cause I went back to the UK in July 2005 for 6 years and knew nothing of ESFC and the HAL.

Edited June 3, 2021 by Smoggy

[Carns]

7 hours ago, wendybr said:

Only 3 more years to go to match SFC's 7 years in "Seventh Heaven"...or in the doldrums at least.

 

1 hour ago, marron said:

Yeah 7th heaven was about them putting out celebratory del piero merch when they didn't make the finals that season wasnt it?

Marron is right that they have only missed finals a handful of times (and never in consistent seasons I think).

7th heaven was them scoring 7 goals against Wellington (I think ADP scored 4), releasing merch for it (framed posters like cricket memorabilia) and then they finished 7th that year.

[Sithslayer1991]

I am still figuring out how Mutch missed that open goal

[Davo]

Sydney have never missed the finals in consecutive seasons so I'm not sure about the comparison.

In 16 seasons they've missed the finals 4 times, i.e. as many times as we've missed the finals in our last 4 seasons.

[sonar]

2 hours ago, MartinTyler said:

Wasn't that Ibini in the first draw or did we miss 2 open goals?

Yep it was Ibini....my bad.

[WSWJACK]

56 minutes ago, Sithslayer1991 said:

I am still figuring out how Mutch missed that open goal

Wonder if that miss has cemented his exit? alternately if he scored would he be still here next season?

[StringerBellend]

8 minutes ago, WSWJACK said:

Wonder if that miss has cemented his exit? alternately if he scored would he be still here next season?

The bit I can’t work out is why we signed him in the first place, he could be Lionel Messi but it does us no good with him on the bench 

[Sithslayer1991]

20 minutes ago, WSWJACK said:

Wonder if that miss has cemented his exit? alternately if he scored would he be still here next season?

I doubt it he was always a squaddie. To me its a wasted foreign spot unless he starts most games. The only foreigners that will remain is Ziggy and maybe Dorrans. Muller and Mutch are gone.

[Davo]

Dorrans has improved since Ugarkovic joined. Seems to play better than when he was paired with Baccus, and Baccus looks better further forward.

I wouldn't mind a Dorrans, Ugarkovic pivot next season provided we can appropriate replace the attacking mid position if Baccus goes.

[MartinTyler]

9 minutes ago, Davo said:

Dorrans has improved since Ugarkovic joined. Seems to play better than when he was paired with Baccus, and Baccus looks better further forward.

I wouldn't mind a Dorrans, Ugarkovic pivot next season provided we can appropriate replace the attacking mid position if Baccus goes.

Amini?

[GE942150]

6 minutes ago, MartinTyler said:

Amini?

The guy has been living near the stadium for a while and attending all our games. He might as well just sign with us 😅

[Davo]

11 minutes ago, MartinTyler said:

Amini?

Yep. Dorrans, Ugarkovic, Amini would be one of the stronger midfield three's in the league.

[Carns]

You'd assume Amini is a possibility providing he recovers OK from his operation.

[nick]

30 minutes ago, Carns said:

You'd assume Amini is a possibility providing he recovers OK from his operation.

He posted on instagram this morning that he's back running.

Also a photo last week wearing a red jumper and black pants. Not saying it's a sign but... Amini confirmed.

[scarcev]

The game that was a metaphor for our season.  We didn’t touch the ball in the first 15mins and duly conceded a cheap early goal.  We then decided to care and got back into it but as soon as we took control we let them back into the game with a dumb decision (send off) then concede a stupid goal that sees 3 defenders on one attacker look complicated.  We then decide to hammer the last 10mins when it’s too late only to see an open goal missed.  Just another Wanderers game really.  If only we could of thrown in a dodgy VAR call and conceding from a set piece and that is every game this season.