Back on Reds bandwagon as Leckie and Flores fire-up
Columnist By Tony Tannous, 25 Feb 2010 Tony Tannous is a Roar Expert
- Tagged:
- ACL, Adelaide United, football, Pohang Steelers
It’s all aboard the Red Rattlers once again. Just over 15 months since wowing the nation with a wonderful run all the way to the Asian Champions League final, Adelaide United were back to their continental best last night, dishing up a dazzling display in seeing off the defending ACL champs from South Korea.
There’s just something about the ACL that transforms the Reds from mere mortals domestically into Asian giant-killers, and it was on full display against the Pohang Steelers.
Last time around they were also doing it on the back of a terrible domestic season, and Aurelio Vidmar turned it around by building from the back through the likes of Sash Ognenovski.
This time around they finished bottom in the A-League, hardly the most convincing preparation.
But a closer inspection shows they were building for this just nicely, with some decent performances towards the end of the season and some of their kids and veterans making favourable impressions.
I’m talking about players like Mathew Leckie, Michael Marrone, Scott Jamieson, Lucas Pantelis and Travis Dodd, who all finished the season in decent form.
No doubt about it, they were a team on the rise, even if the results didn’t always confirm this.
Couple that with some very astute recruitment in Sergio Van Dijk, Marcos Flores and Adam Griffiths, and you actually have a squad, worthy of the word.
Indeed, any Australian team that can afford to start a game with Fabian Barbiero, a player I have admired since that wonderful ACL campaign, is one to be respected.
The reason Vidmar could afford to start Barbiero off the bench here is because, in Marrone and Flores, he has two out-and-out guns in midfield.
For the past couple of months I have been scratching my head, trying to work out what on earth prompted Adelaide to let Marrone disappear to North Queensland for next season.
Neat and purposeful on the ball, he has shown strength, positional awareness and drive, and sound distribution from the holding midfield role, and I am delighted Pim Verbeek recognised his recent contributions with a call-up for the Indonesian game.
As for Flores, what a find!
When I texted a friend, enamoured with Argentine football, expressing my delight at his 30 minute cameo on debut earlier this month, he wondering if Adelaide had finally found a replacement for Diego. ‘Spot on’, I replied.
While Barbiero has done the job on occasions, he is a different player to Flores, who is more a ball to feet man who can see a pass and pick it out early.
Barbiero is a slightly deeper player, who can get forward and get on the end of the things.
Flores is more a classic number 10, looking to get in the hole and link, and here he put on an exemplary performance. His ability to hit a target with a one-touch ball was a joy to watch, and long may it continue.
Long also may Leckie’s impact on football continue, all the way to South Africa, and beyond.
Ross Aloisi did his best to hose-down calls, led by this correspondent, for Leckie to be considered a South African bolter, but his display here only served to reinforce why I believe he is such a great option for Verbeek.
Undoubtedly unknown to the Steelers hierarchy, he was able to slip under the radar and have a massive influence on the outcome here.
His solo goal, demonstrating sharpness, cunning and awareness, was exactly the reason why I believe he would suit Verbeek’s want to counter attack, and as an unknown joker off the bench, he has a role to play.
Certainly, he works as hard and as smart as any attacker around, and if he can make an impact against Indonesia, and keep this level up throughout the group phase here, anything is possible.
As Vidmar keeps reminding us, “he isn’t afraid of playing against anyone”.
As for the two veterans, Pantelis and Dodd, they were full of mobility and desire here, and always posed a threat feeding off the leadership provided by van Dijk.
Whereas Ognenovski was the fulcrum of the last campaign, this time it is another big man from Brisbane, van Dijk, who is set to be the key.
While he didn’t really threaten to find the back of the net on this night, his general link up play and strength proved a hand-full and provided space for the likes of Leckie, Flores, Pantelis and Dodd.
Credit too to Vidmar, unlicensed, but pulling the strings. He had an offensive formation and attitude here, always looking to get men forward, around and beyond van Dijk. It worked a treat.
The Reds are back is Asia, back where they belong. Let’s hope the run is just as fun.
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- Explore:
- ACL, Adelaide United, football, Pohang Steelers
February 25th 2010 @ 10:48am
Ben of Phnom Penh said | February 25th 2010 @ 10:48am | Report comment
Shandong also managed an away win against Sabfrecce Hiroshima. The group is looking interesting already and hardly going by the form book.
February 25th 2010 @ 11:07am
AA said | February 25th 2010 @ 11:07am | Report comment
Good for the Australian game this result.
February 25th 2010 @ 1:19pm
Sharminator said | February 25th 2010 @ 1:19pm | Report comment
Soccer isnt the Australian game .. its the world game.
Aussie Rules is the Australian game!
February 25th 2010 @ 1:31pm
Tony Tannous said | February 25th 2010 @ 1:31pm | Report comment
Unnecessary Sharminator, AA’s comment wasn’t meant to entice such a response.
The context of his comment is that last night’s result was good for the game of Football in Australia. Did you watch it?
February 25th 2010 @ 10:03pm
AA said | February 25th 2010 @ 10:03pm | Report comment
Spot on Tony, I was referring to this result being good for the development of Australian soccer. Sherminator you read it wrong, ask me next time if you’re not suer what I meant.
AA
February 25th 2010 @ 12:42pm
Midfielder said | February 25th 2010 @ 12:42pm | Report comment
I hope the Inbreds do well … great victory last night…
February 25th 2010 @ 2:47pm
mintox said | February 25th 2010 @ 2:47pm | Report comment
What I enjoyed most about this game is that Adelaide were organised in defence, they soaked up pressure and went forward with clean and crisp posession and stunning counter attacks.
On SBS Sunday, they had a Korean Coach saying that Australian football is too much brawn and not enough about technique, normally when looking at the A-League, I would agree, we’re improving but we still have a way to go to get rid of the overly physical nature of our league.
Last night however I think that Adelaide had the right balance between battling physically and being technical on the ball and it was great to watch. Pohang, last years ACL winners were left to float crosses in from half way between the by line and the half way line or speculative shots from 30 yards.
I have to admire their performance last night and I’m not even an Adelaide fan.
February 25th 2010 @ 2:55pm
Towser said | February 25th 2010 @ 2:55pm | Report comment
I feel youve hit the nail on the head in your statement
“Last night however I think that Adelaide had the right balance between battling physically and being technical on the ball and it was great to watch”
There was something similar on display when Phoenix & Glory played their finals match. Perhaps leaning a bit too much towards the physical than the technical, for the ACL maybe.
I doubt whether Asian clubs will ever be more physical,but we can be more technical.
This IMO puts the odds in our favour in future.
February 25th 2010 @ 3:37pm
mintox said | February 25th 2010 @ 3:37pm | Report comment
Well done to the Korean teams including Pohang for focusing on the technical side of player development however they’ve now created a couple of generations of clones, players that are jacks-of-all-trades but masters of none.
Their wingers couldn’t beat Adelaide’s full backs to the by line to make a cross. There was no Korean striker of note, instead there were a couple of Brazillians that led the line for them. Their midfielders failed to break down the organised defence and for all their coaches whinging about Adelaide’s defensive approach, the onus is on their supposedly superior team to break down Adelaide’s defence.
I do admire their players technical ability but I would like us in Australia to take lessons from other countries failures. There is no point being technical if you can’t beat a man physically as well. We’ve proven able to hold our own physically in Europe and once we improve technically we will start to see our players become world stars rather than B-List stars.
February 25th 2010 @ 3:55pm
Towser said | February 25th 2010 @ 3:55pm | Report comment
Whilst most talk of our participation im Asia,is generally about catching up to their technique,perhaps it may work the other way also. Our physicality may rub off on other Asian football countries.
February 25th 2010 @ 4:16pm
mintox said | February 25th 2010 @ 4:16pm | Report comment
I don’t expect that our influence would be large enough to change their stance unless of course we start to dominate the ACL and even then it would take years of dominance to convince the K-League and J-League that they need to change their focus (though continuing to fail at World Cup level and the lack of Japanese or Korean players becoming stars might).
I have always believed that the move to Asia would benefit us from a footballing perspective, more than it would benefit Asia from an organisational perspective (which was one of the claimed benefits of us joining the confederation).
February 25th 2010 @ 4:34pm
AndyRoo said | February 25th 2010 @ 4:34pm | Report comment
I expect Korea to go through a bit of a golden period in the next 5 years with exporting talent overseas so they probably will ignore us for a while. They had 3 players go straight from the K league this year to good European clubs and a 4th linked with Blackburn.
That said they were not happy about Song going to Newcastle and bagged him for not improving technically at all. But I have no doubt he is a much better player and a safer bet for a European club than what he was when he first came to Australia. Hopefully he gets a gig in Europe like he wants and that could start a bit of a trend.
I do have one concern and that’s the playmaker position, it’s a bit of an easy fix to bring in Imports for that role and then we won’t produce our own. I think that has affected the K league and J league with most of their strikers being imports. It could be a black hole for us for a few years until SSG and such take effect.
February 25th 2010 @ 3:34pm
Footbal Person said | February 25th 2010 @ 3:34pm | Report comment
FANTASTIC…. supposedly the worst team in Australia taking on supposeddly the best team in Asia and Australia wins. Im not saying that Australian clubs are the strongest in Asia but………
we must be up there anyway with Japan and SK . And i only said Adelaide was the worst because they finished last……………………… Central Coast is the worst
February 25th 2010 @ 3:50pm
AndrewM said | February 25th 2010 @ 3:50pm | Report comment
the technical side is improving. I have really noticed it towards the end of the season. After watching last nights game I was very happy to see adelaide not only match, but surpass the playing style of last years ACL. Can’t get to carried away however as it was the steelers off season.
Adelaide need to back this up now and play like that each game. Would be wondferful if the can make it to the knockout stage and play that style of football.
It is encouraging to also see arnies comments about wanting players who can pass the ball out from the back. Looks like the playing style of the mariners will be taking a step in the right direction next season.. would also imagine the heart will play smart technical football as well.
I just hope lots of the aussie expats after the WC look to come home over the next 2 years and give the league a huge technical boost.
February 25th 2010 @ 4:23pm
mintox said | February 25th 2010 @ 4:23pm | Report comment
More importantly than the Aussie Expats giving the A-League a technical boost is that we give the youth players a go to play the game in their style.
I’ve you’ve ever watched the National Youth League, the games are a breath of fresh air, it’s the technical level and style that we should be looking to for the A-League (though they are tactically naive but that’s kids for you). These kids keep getting called up into A-League teams and asked to play different style or have their effect reduced by playing low-risk football.
We also need to continue to recruit quality players like this year. Gone are the days of Brian Deane, Steve McMahon Jnr, Dwight Yorke. We need players that will improve the level of the league and hang around long enough to make a lasting impact. I enjoyed watching Sergio Van Dyke and Flores last night. I hope that the kids in the Adelaide team can learn something from them.
February 25th 2010 @ 9:57pm
Tony Tannous said | February 25th 2010 @ 9:57pm | Report comment
Thanks for the input mintox, I’ve been talking about the quality improvement for much of this season,from kids, imports and returning Australians, so it’s good to ready someone else with similar sentiment.
I love the ACL, and mainly because the emphasis shifts from the physical to the technical, and I was delighted to see Adelaide competing so well on the tactical and technical front…early on I thought they were going to cop a hiding, but they used the characteristic Australian power from Dodd, Pantelis and Leckie and mixed it with the quality of Flores and van Dijk, a neat combo for sure..
Having said that I believe the A-League, this season, has made giant strides on the technical front, so the balance is definitely heading the right way.
February 26th 2010 @ 12:21am
mintox said | February 26th 2010 @ 12:21am | Report comment
The A-League has made giant strides, MOST teams took steps forward. Sydney, Gold Coast and Victory led the way but played good football (and not just hoofball or combative football). Newcastle turned it around and were always good to watch, probably more so than any other team at their best. Even Phoenix and Glory looked good and tried to play football how it should be though they were probably let down by a lack of quality technicians on the pitch.
However, my major gripe about the A-League is that we still persist with the work horse player over the technical player.
I support the Glory and last year we had an average season, however one player I loved to watch was Adrian Trinidad, an Argie with a bit of flair and the skill to beat his man. We also brought Adrian Carceras a player of Argentinian heritage who is skillful on the ball and quick on the dribble. With both players, we failed to understand how to utilise them and we let them go or sat them on the bench, instead opting for lesser players that worked harder.
THis season, whilst an improvement on other seasons, we still persisted with the midfield grafter instead of the midfield maestro. Promising kids like Jukic and Neville were dropped in favour of athletically gifted or stronger players like Wayne Shroj or Jamie Coyne. Even Jamie Harnwell, a crowd favourite but in reality about as agile and quick as an elephant, still managed to get games over a younger and more skillful alternative for the simple reason, he could throw his weight around and score a header or two.