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Adelaide United coach Aurelio Vidmar has blamed political infighting at his club for their 4-0 A-League major semi-final second leg defeat to Melbourne Victory, saying the team was beaten before it even took to Telstra Dome on Saturday night.
Vidmar appeared close to breaking point as he launched an astonishing post-match attack on all segments of the club following a defeat which earned the Victory a home grand final.
He refused to name anyone specifically, but fingered players, officials, and even media as he vented his spleen on “everyone involved with the club”, and the politics he blamed for tearing the Reds down.
“It was an absolute disgrace,” Vidmar said of the defeat.
“We owe the world an apology.
“Politics is what I put it down to. There’s too many people at this club with hidden agendas.
“That 4-0 result tonight was politics, nothing else. This club will never win anything until you get rid of that crap.
“This was a very happy place until a few weeks ago.”
It is a remarkable turnaround in fortunes for Adelaide and Vidmar, who was named A-League coach of the year a fortnight ago after guiding the Reds to the Asian Champions League final and second place in the A-League.
Now Vidmar is demanding crisis talks to sort out Adelaide’s problems on Monday, as the Reds try to regroup ahead of a sudden-death preliminary final at Hindmarsh Stadium next Saturday against in-form Queensland Roar.
“There needs to be a massive heart-to-heart Monday morning,” Vidmar said.
“You’ve either got balls or you don’t have balls. We’ll see who has and who hasn’t.
“We actually want people out there who are going to play football and not worry about anything else.
“We need people around the club who are thinking of the right things. Football, nothing else.”
The club has had several on and off-field changes of late, including announcing the departures of a number of key players at the end of the season.
Defender Angelo Costanzo will join Newcastle next season, while midfielders Diego and Jonas Salley have been released, marquee striker Paul Agostino and defender Mike Valkanis are retiring and defender Sasa Ognenovski will join South Korean side Seongnam Ilhwa.
The Reds’ miserable night was compounded further by the late send-off of Brazilian midfielder Cassio for a second yellow card offence.
Cassio is also likely to face the wrath of the match review panel for making a rude arm gesture to Victory fans as he left the field.
The post-match fireworks took some of the gloss off a scintillating performance by the Victory which brought back memories of their 6-0 hammering of the Reds in the grand final at the same venue two years ago.
The Victory’s 4-0 win gave them a 6-0 aggregate triumph in the two-legged tie to grab home ground advantage for the grand final on February 28, and a chance to become the first club to win two A-League championships.
They had their spot in the grand final wrapped up by halftime.
Costa Rican midfielder Carlos Hernandez, who only returned to Australia on match morning following World Cup duty in Central America midweek, inspired Melbourne’s win.
He scored one goal and created two others, before being substituted on the hour with the Victory’s mission accomplished.
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