Adelaide down Melbourne in A-League
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Their coach was banished but Adelaide United’s players bashed Melbourne Victory into submission in a rough-house 1-0 triumph in Friday night’s A-League match.
Adelaide’s Jeronimo Neumann scored the winner in a foul-tempered affair at Hindmarsh Stadium featuring six yellow cards and one red.
Snapping a three-game losing streak, Adelaide rose to within a point of the second-placed Victory on the ladder, adopting brutal tactics on their arch rivals who lost star striker Archie Thompson to injury.
The red-lining Reds copped five yellow cards in the initial 40 minutes, resulting in caretaker coach Michael Valkanis snapping at referees.
Volcanic Valkanis’ eruption resulted in him being sent from the sidelines, and Neumann scored as he was marching down the tunnel.
Neumann leapt high to meet Dario Vidosic’s sweet, sweeping cross from near the by-line, the Argentine crunching a close-range header into the net in the 42nd minute.
Adelaide celebrated wildly, suitable given their testy first-half mood in which they aggressively knocked the Victory off-course.
The Reds saved special force for their former teammate and now Melbourne playmaker Marcos Flores, who was fouled five times in the first half.
Adelaide’s savage tactics worked: the Victory failed to register a single shot at goal in an opening half marred by Thompson’s 35th minute departure with a cramped left hamstring and back spasms.
Ironically, it was Melbourne who went a player down when defender Adama Traore copped a straight red card for a late tackle on Jon McKain in the 75th minute.
The Victory had only recorded their first shot at goal some four minutes earlier when Marcos Rojas sprayed a speculative right-footer metres wide of the target.
Melbourne logged just three scoring attempts for the match, with just one on target.
Valkanis said his first win as coach since replacing John Kosmina two weeks ago was important for the club.
“We needed to have this win because we have been through quite a bit in the last couple of weeks,” Valkanis said.
“I really wanted the players to show that passion, that aggression, to win a game.”
Melbourne Victory coach Ange Postecoglou was pleased with his team’s composure in the face of Adelaide’s hostility.
“It was physical, when it’s like that it is pretty hard to get a decent flow in a game, it’s pretty disruptive, stop-start all the time,” he said.
“It makes it hard to get any flow or rhythm into it which, from our perspective, is the kind of football we want to play.”
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February 9th 2013 @ 8:21am
pete4 said | February 9th 2013 @ 8:21am | Report comment
MV really miss Finkler IMO. Traore’s red card shouldn’t have been… but credit to AU they looked up for this one and deserved the 3 points
February 9th 2013 @ 8:24am
Fussball ist unser leben said | February 9th 2013 @ 8:24am | Report comment
Shocking performance by MVFC and, by contrast, I thought AUFC played some terrific football albeit their thuggish tactics in the 1st half ruined the game as a spectacle.
Adama’s red card is still a mystery, but that’s the nature of referee decisions and it had no impact on the result.
It’s the 2nd consecutive week MVFC has played poorly – last week we got the result; this week we got what we deserved.
As far as I’m concerned, MVFC’s season is now over. We cannot win the A-League title – unless CCM falls in a heap, and they tend to only do that in knock-out competition.
The lads have done better than I expected in 2012/13. We need a tighter defence & there will be no excuses to not win the trophy next year.
Until the 2013/14 season starts, MVFC should now concentrate on the A-League knock-out competition.
February 9th 2013 @ 8:46am
Roger said | February 9th 2013 @ 8:46am | Report comment
Terrible game.
For me, it was ruined by the thuggery displayed in the first 10 minutes, and the refusal of the ref to do anything about it. Realistically, AU should have been down to 10 men in the first 10. And then Traore was just the icing on the cake.
Ah well, at least we’re not the only team that suffers from bizarre decisions.
February 9th 2013 @ 8:58am
Qantas supports Australian Football said | February 9th 2013 @ 8:58am | Report comment
I have to say that game was a marvelous spectacle of Australian Football. Congratulations to caretaker coach Michael Valkanis for picking up the pieces from last week (AU v WSW) to give MBV a real football lesson.. Well until the MBV went down to 10 men then the AU seem to struggle.. Maybe it is true what is taught in AFL, if you want to play well, you reduce the number of players you have on the park to get the momentum you need to play good winning football. How many times have we heard that coming out of Melbourne?
February 9th 2013 @ 9:00am
c said | February 9th 2013 @ 9:00am | Report comment
one of the best nights at hindmarsh for some time we could of had five if we were really good
February 9th 2013 @ 9:18am
Roger said | February 9th 2013 @ 9:18am | Report comment
Congrats c, must have been amazing for you guys. Another AU vs. MV classic
February 9th 2013 @ 9:18am
MV Dave said | February 9th 2013 @ 9:18am | Report comment
Very disappointing performance from MV…the selected team seemed unbalanced and it seems some players didn’t do their future prospects at the club any favours. Coe again indecisive on a cross…
To win the league you need to be able to succeed against all types of opponents both physical or otherwise…there is little doubt we missed someone like Milligan in that regard.
The decision against Traore was poor and should be overturned on appeal but strangely enough MV were at their best when down to 10. Otherwise no real complaints against the Ref who booked 5 AU players in the first half when the game was quite physical.
MV will need to pick up their game for next week vs WSW which will be almost a play off for a top 2 spot.
BTW well done to the AU (and MV) supporters who made the atmosphere so noisy and passionate throughout…belies the hatchet job done by a Ch 10 news report before the game predicting flares and hooliganism. There wasn’t even a match preview even though MV are drawing big crowds in Melbourne and average almost 25,000.
February 9th 2013 @ 10:29am
j binnie said | February 9th 2013 @ 10:29am | Report comment
Dave – your attempts at match analysis never cease to amaze me for sometime you “rant” and other times you appear to go at it in a reasoned, organised, approach.
Take this report. You crucify Coe for for being insdecisive at 1 cross yet omit to mention the number of saves he made when faced with “man v goalie” situations which Adelaide constructed on almost countless occasions. These are goalkeeping nightmares and don’t point to goalkeeper weakness but points directly at the failure of the defence in front of the goalkeeper to stop penetration occurring.
Milligan was missed ,no doubt , but if a team is to be genuine title chasers they must be able to overcome such problems. The way McCain played I’m not so sure Mark would not have had his work cut out to contain him, he was by far the outstanding player on the field.
You “judge” the Traore incident (with the help of slo-mo and replays) forgetting the ref. does not enjoy such luxeries and yet even the slo -mo showed the boot,with studs showing, at least 150mm off the ground,coming in at pace, and no ball contact. Technically a very dangerous attempt at a tackle. Right or wrong,the ref thought what he thought.
You then go on to say Victory had their best spell when down to 10 men and yet ignore the fact that Adelaide who had played a superb “pressing” game for 75 minutes were obviously starting to show physical repercussions to the effort expended.
Great comment about the crowd and atmosphere but even then your colour showed for the Victory average is 23,000 and that will fall back to 21,000 when the effects of the derby on that figure gets watered down with some more “regular sized” gates.
Hope I haven’t offended you,not intended,for I think you are capable of giving good insight into the football you watch but please,look at the big pictures. jb
February 9th 2013 @ 10:45am
Crown77 said | February 9th 2013 @ 10:45am | Report comment
Just a heads up about the goalkeeper Coe, I don’t know much about him to criticise him, but Remember Portugal’s goalkeeper Ricardo?
Saved everything you threw at him you name it penalties, one on ones, indefensible strikes he had them all but when the ball was crossed into the area you just needed a tall striker and it was in.
Remember Portugal’s Euro Cup final with Greece? That was Ricardo at his best. A simple cross he flies like a eagle and misses the ball completely, the striker just had to simply head it in.
Coe did remind me of Ricardo in AU’s goal, just like an eagle lol, but he did have some magnificent saves thou.
February 9th 2013 @ 3:21pm
j binnie said | February 9th 2013 @ 3:21pm | Report comment
Crown77 – Never mind Ricardo, for as you say goalkeepers do some things very well,and yet often have an apparent weakness in their game Take our own Mark Schwartzer, a magnificent servant to his clubs and his country,but,having watched him since his days at Marconi I have always regarded him as a wonderful “shot stopper”, (his penalty saves back up this opinion), but at the same time I have always worried about him when he has to attack a cross ball.
That doesn’t make him a bad goalkeepr just a normal human being with talents and weaknesses.
Last evening Robbie Slater was quick to point out Coe was caught in no-man’s land (his words) too often and yet seemed to go very quiet when Coe was FORCED to get into “no man’s land” when faced with the penetrative runs being almost endlessly engineered by Adelaide players. That’s the point I was making to Dave,when forming an opinion, always look at the big picture. Cheers jb
February 9th 2013 @ 11:05am
Fussball ist unser leben said | February 9th 2013 @ 11:05am | Report comment
jb
Each team in the A-League plays 13 home games. With 27 matches in the season, the 14th game is a Regional Game & neither team is given a “home ground” advantage.
So, this season MVFC has already played 10 home games:
Docklands
5 matches
Total: 142, 554
Average: 28,511
AAMI Park
5 matches
Total: 100,349
Average: 20,070
MVFC has 3 more home matches at AAMI Park: WSW, NUJ, PER
From early reports, next week’s WSW match is close to a sellout.
If MVFC continues to average 20k crowds at AAMI Park for the final 3 games, our 2012/13 season average for 13 home games = 23.3k
You claim: MVFC’s seasonal average “will fall back to 21,000″ . NONSENSE.
For MVFC to finish 2012/13 with an average crowd of 21k – as you predict – it means an average of 10k must attend the final 3 matches at AAMI Park.
I can only assume your attempts to undermine the massive crowds MVFC consistently attracts is evidence of anti MVFC bias?
February 9th 2013 @ 12:25pm
j binnie said | February 9th 2013 @ 12:25pm | Report comment
Fuss – Your colours are showing again. I sincerely wish Victory could pull in 40,000 every week ,that to me would be a real wake up call to others in the league.
Now to the numbers game which you know I dabble in for FUN..
Up to the recent “derby” games v Sydney (26,882 ) and Heart (41,203) plus the opening “derby” game of the season (42.032) Victory’s average for the other 8 matches (irrespective of where they played) showed me a figure of 17,503. By adding in those 3 “special” gates the average is lifted to a runaway “leading” average of 22,740, statistically a tremendous jump.
Now as you well know forecasting is not an exact science and in replying to Dave I simply pulled a figure out of the air when I said 21,000,again no malice intended.
I have included the “home” game crowd of 6238 in my overall calculation ,again not out of malice ,just counting it as a game where Victory drew a crowd .Using my figures as a guide I calculated that if Victory drew 20,000 to their last 3 games thay would average 22,000 so I’m sorry if the 1000 I underclaimed upset you or DAVE. OK? jb.
February 9th 2013 @ 12:33pm
Midfielder said | February 9th 2013 @ 12:33pm | Report comment
Fuss
On another level… you have 3 home games in your last 8 matches … we have 4 home games in our last 7 matches … not sure if it means anything but after tonight you will have only 2 in 7 matches at home … with Mariners & Roar away…
February 9th 2013 @ 12:43pm
Midfielder said | February 9th 2013 @ 12:43pm | Report comment
Just for the record WSW so 4 of 8 … and 3 of 7 at home
1 Jets home
2 MLV away
3 PG home
4 CCM away
5 Nix home
6 MLH away
7 SFC home
8 Jets away
February 9th 2013 @ 12:29pm
Nathan of Perth said | February 9th 2013 @ 12:29pm | Report comment
From that description of Traore’s challenge I can see why he was sent off. Elevated studs will send you on your way more often than not!
February 9th 2013 @ 1:08pm
Andy said | February 9th 2013 @ 1:08pm | Report comment
Check out this, there is a video of the red card incident. He barely touched him and studs were down when contact possibly occurred: http://www.fromthestandsal.com/2013/02/09/match-fixing-and-what-the-a-league-does-not-need/
February 9th 2013 @ 3:57pm
Roger said | February 9th 2013 @ 3:57pm | Report comment
Mate, checkout the replay, and then tell me if that was a red – let alone a yellow.
A foul? Yes, I think he may have clipped him. But a card? Hmmmm….
February 9th 2013 @ 3:09pm
MV Dave said | February 9th 2013 @ 3:09pm | Report comment
No problems JB it is a sports opinion website…but those who follow MV will know that Coe has been susceptible to crosses all season and cost a few goals…last night he cost MV 2 points. He was very uncertain coming off his line all game and could have cost more goals. Whilst he spread himself well to stop the Vidosic shot any forward worth his salt should have buried that.
Your point about the time MV went down to 10 men doesn’t make sense…MV were working very hard, albeit not smart, to try and get into the game. Their fatigue levels would have been just as high but they finally found some smarts to open the game up in the last 15mins with a greater sense of desperation no doubt.
Traore decision was a poor one which ever way you look it particularly as the Ref was so close to it…however overall the Ref did ok, no complaints there.
MVs attendances in Melbourne are close to 25,000 ave…l don’t see how a game played in a different state can be used to drag down their attendance average.
February 9th 2013 @ 4:00pm
Roger said | February 9th 2013 @ 4:00pm | Report comment
MV Dave – in re to the ref, didn’t you think that he was a bit card shy on Adelaide in the beginning? Especially when he didn’t hand out a card for the studs tackle on Flores?
February 9th 2013 @ 4:08pm
MV Dave said | February 9th 2013 @ 4:08pm | Report comment
Roger
There is no doubt AU got ‘stuck in’ early and the Ref did give 5 yellows to Adelaide players in the first half. I’m afraid that Flores, whilst a very good player and no doubt targeted by AU players, just goes down too easily and too often for my liking. Not to say he wasnt fouled a few times. Maybe it’s something about playing his old club that effects him and he gets over emotional but he just needs to step up a little more in the big pressure games.
February 9th 2013 @ 8:56pm
Roger said | February 9th 2013 @ 8:56pm | Report comment
So, to be clear, you don’t think studs showing and crunching down on Flores’ foot is a cardable offence?
February 9th 2013 @ 11:28pm
j binnie said | February 9th 2013 @ 11:28pm | Report comment
Hi Dave. Thanks for the reply.You will see I have been castigated for including the Tasmania game in the average I calculated and have been told my calculation and forecast was NONSENSE.
Remember I said I always like to look at the bigger picture, but it seems I have to EXCLUDE the smallest gate(Tasmania) but it’s OK to INCLUDE the two “derby” games, benefits that only the 2 Melbourne clubs have enjoyed up till this season.
Ah,statistics???????? they can tell many many stories. Keep up the good work.
By the way I don’t think Coe has played all season has he? and considering by my calculation he has only conceded 21 goals in 16 games (1.3 per game) I don’t see him as having cost Victory too many points.for if the forwards averaged 2 goals per game they would win more than they would lose. Simplistic ???? yes but just as sensible as saying a goalkeeper has cost lots of points over a series of games. Get my point?. Let’s agree to disagree. jb
February 9th 2013 @ 11:39pm
Fussball ist unser leben said | February 9th 2013 @ 11:39pm | Report comment
No, jb .. you don’t have to exclude the smallest home gate for MVFC.
The smallest home attendance this year for MVFC was 16,676 against bottom-of-the-table Perth Glory.
But, to include a regional game – played in Tasmania – as an MVFC home match is false & misleading. As an MVFC season ticket holder, I did not get entry to the match in Tasmania, because it was NOT an MVFC home game.
Each A-League teams play 13 home matches.
Today’s WSW match in Campbelltown was an FFA regional match – it was not WSW’s home game. WSW season ticket holders did NOT get entry to this match.
February 10th 2013 @ 11:21am
j binnie said | February 10th 2013 @ 11:21am | Report comment
Fuss Get over it .You have proved your point about the game in Tasmania,and I thought I had explained that for ,if accuracy has to be maintained ,when comparing Victory’s figures with the other EIGHT teams in the league (Heart excluded), a statistician could give you a very good argument as to why the “derby gates” should be excluded when doing an inter club comparison,for up till this season the 2 Melbourne clubs had a distinct advantage over the other single city/town teams in the league.But who is caring about advanced statistical arguments,so if my figures (a hobby) insult your intelligence,DON’T READ THEM. Your pal in our never ending battle to improve our game. jb
ps Again, I hope Victory sell out every remaining home game and make mincemeat of my forecast to Dave. jb
February 9th 2013 @ 11:46pm
Ian said | February 9th 2013 @ 11:46pm | Report comment
so really MV fans are saying coe made a mistake and that lost them the game, not that Adelaide played better.
how unusual.
from a member of a different club to Adelaide
February 10th 2013 @ 12:31pm
Kasey said | February 10th 2013 @ 12:31pm | Report comment
great summation Ian..we ADL fans are used to having any achievement poo-poohed..got to an ACLGF? Must have been incredibly lucky… Beat MBV at Hindmarsh??, where they haven’t won since 2009..must have thugged their way to ithe 3 points.
A halfway decent Football playing team would have just out-played an overly physical team, but no.
MBV fans can never give credit where it is due..no credit that AUFC were mentally ‘up’ for a big rivalry game and came out breathing fire on Friday night…with better finishing, United could and should have won 2-0 or 3-0. One goal mouth scramble is my recollection of MBV’s attempts on goal over 90 minutes. Remind me again which team going into Friday night had just lost 3 games on the trot?
February 9th 2013 @ 9:25am
midfielder said | February 9th 2013 @ 9:25am | Report comment
Puts some more clear water between us and mg
February 9th 2013 @ 10:35am
Midfielder said | February 9th 2013 @ 10:35am | Report comment
We still have MEV, WSW, Bris to play but at least they are all at home…great win for us …. I think MV missed Milllgggaaa he is a box to box worker and closes down a lot he was the key reason lsat time we played MV why our mids we so ineffective … he also creates a lot …
1 Perth away
2 MEV home
3 WSW home
4 SFC away
5 Bri home
6 AU away
7 MEH home
February 9th 2013 @ 9:33am
Nathan of Perth said | February 9th 2013 @ 9:33am | Report comment
Haven’t seen the red yet, can anyone give me a rundown?
February 9th 2013 @ 10:49am
jamesb said | February 9th 2013 @ 10:49am | Report comment
Victory are starting to run out of troops.
Whilst Milligan missing last night was a huge blow, I think Victory will miss defender Nicholas Ansell. He has been brilliant. Apparently Ansell is out for 8 weeks due to a groin injury.
Traore was very unlucky to be sent off, while Archie left the field before half time. It wasn’t Victory’s night, that’s for sure.
It does look like the Mariners will get the Premiers Plate, although look out for WSW.
February 9th 2013 @ 11:04am
Andyroo said | February 9th 2013 @ 11:04am | Report comment
A bit off topic but Mckains performance showed Kosmina up a bit.
His constant omissions of Sergio, Caravella and Mckain puzzled me. He wrote a piece clarifying why he didn’t pick Sergio but to me his reasons weren’t good enough.
He clearly didn’t want to pick them so falling out with 3 of your best players isn’t a great look.
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