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David Villa’s potentially last A-league game ended in defeat as Melbourne City were defeated 2-1 by a determined Adelaide United side.
City opened the scoring through a header from Kisnorbo before dropping away, allowing Djite to score in a similar manner just before the break and ultimately allowing United to grab a second in the 79th minute through a penalty converted by Carrusca.
City were lucky to end the game with 10 men with the penalty decision only resulting in a yellow card to goalkeeper Redmayne who clearly took out an Adelaide player.
A lively opening 20 minutes for Melbourne was undone by an uninspired preceding 70 minutes where they rarely threatened. Villa had his moments and was unlucky not to grab a departing goal for Melbourne. The question now is, can things get any worse for City without Villa?
With 1 point from four games, Melbourne City haven’t given their fans much heart with these early season performances.
Adelaide on the other hand sit temporarily at the top of the table and have proved an exciting side to watch this season.
Grinding this game out, Adelaide should be encouraged by their ability to come from behind away from home, and grab all three points. All in all a quality game to watch; good-bye for now David Villa.
FINAL SCORE
Melbourne City 1
Adelaide Untied 2
Melbourne City will say a sooner than expected goodbye to David Villa as they host an in-form Adelaide United outfit hellbent on sending the Spanish star out a loser. Join The Roar from 7:40pm (AEDT) for live scores and commentary.
Despite an encouraging off-season including some great recruitments, the newly named Melbourne City have started the season with two losses and a draw.
Even with an instantly effective David Villa, scoring in his first two games, City have struggled to put in convincing performances that their fans would have been expecting after a disappointing tenure as the Heart.
Now faced with the early departure of Villa and the side-lining of marquee Robert Koren for at least six weeks, Melbourne City will be forced to kick-start their season without their stars.
City face an Adelaide side in sparkling form having beaten last year’s champions Brisbane Roar in the opening game, unlucky only to draw with table leaders Melbourne Victory, knocking Sydney FC out of the FFA Cup quarter-final in extra time, and easily dispatching a surprisingly strong Perth Glory outfit.
With strikers Sergio Cirio and Bruce Djite regularly finding the back of the net, great service from James Jeggo and Marcelo Carrusca and a lively defence decked out with veteran Tarek Elrich, United look a side to be feared this season.
Star striker Djite was forced to sit out the game against Perth but has been included in the Adelaide line-up, while Portuguese defender Fabio Ferreira, who scored an impressive nine goals for the Reds last season, is out with a hamstring injury for at least two weeks.
For Melbourne City, young defender Connor Chapman who was hoping to return from injury will again been absent after picking up a hamstring injury playing for City’s youth side over the weekend. They are however boosted by the return of striker David Williams, who managed a respectable 12 goals last season.
On form, this looks to be Adelaide’s game to lose, however on the back of their humiliation in the Melbourne Derby last weekend and having to say an early sayonara to Villa, expect to see a determined City side that will make United work very hard for a result.
Having shared the spoils in their past three encounters, I wouldn’t be too shocked to see another similarly close encounter.
Aside from the departing Villa, I recommend keeping an eye on Melbourne City’s Aaron Mooy and Adelaide’s Cirio, who will both undoubtedly be in the thick of the action.
Join us on The Roar from 7:40pm AEST to follow all of the action between Melbourne City and Adelaide United and say your own fond farewell to Spanish legend David Villa.
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