Adelaide United heads into the 2012/13 A-League season as the best-prepared club, but can it sustain that across the season?
The recap:
2011/12: Five wins, 10 draws, 12 losses – ninth place.
The club’s progression to the Asian Champions League knockout stage afforded it an extended pre-season. While other A-League clubs have been playing infrequent friendlies against state league and A-League opposition, Adelaide United heads into the new season off the back of a two-legged Asian Champions League quarter-final.
But while the club will be fighting fit and match-ready for the season’s start, can it keep the pace up through to March, particularly if its Asian adventure continues with progression to the semis and final?
Adelaide starts the season with winnable matches away to Newcastle and at home to newcomers Western Sydney, before an away trip to old foe Melbourne Victory to face former fan favourite Marcos Flores and a home match to Wellington Phoenix. Three from four wins is possible from the first month of football, given its head start on the opposition.
But question marks remain for a club that is an A-League enigma. While its counter-attacking style suits the group stages and knockout matches of the Asian Champions League, it has struggled to translate that into the A-League on a weekly basis. Too often Adelaide squandered leads and collapsed late on in matches, with only five wins last season and only two at home.
It was a season to regroup and begin the rebuilding process after the messy divorce with former head coach Rini Coolen, who cast out some club favourites and soon lost the faith of club officials and fans following some real misses in his rebuilding attempts.
John Kosmina was brought in to steady the ship and start again with what was left, benefiting from the opportunity granted by the Asian Champions League to improve the players’ fitness and add some to toughness. Rather than relying so heavily on its previous counter-attacking style, a new possession-based playing from the back style has been evident, which could become the norm.
The club, running on a tight budget given the cost of its Asian campaign, the ongoing lawsuit brought on by Coolen and the enforced loss of title sponsor Coopers (thanks to Football Federation Australia’s new anti-alcohol sponsorship stance), hasn’t been overly active in the transfer market, however.
New South American imports Jeronimo Morales Neumann and Marcelo Carrusca will be charged with bringing some Flores-type flare to a club that missed creative outlets last season, but otherwise, rather than boosting its squad, new players have been signed to directly replace those who have departed – Daniel Bowles a straight cover for Daniel Mullen at right-back, for example.
Crucially, star player Dario Vidosic has stayed on and will need a strong, injury-free season if Adelaide is to threaten. Striker Sergio Van Dijk seems to be hanging around, although he is likely to play second fiddle to Bruce Djite, who will need to become much more prolific in front of goals for a club that averaged less than a goal a game last season with a league-low of 26 goals.
Eugene Galekovic is one of the best shot-stoppers in the league and has saved the club’s blushes on so many occasions, but a club cannot rely on a goalkeeper as often as Adelaide does and doubts remain as to whether a defense that conceded the most of any last season (44) and hasn’t been significantly bolstered can support its ‘keeper.
Unless Vidosic, Djite and Van Dijk, ably assisted by imports Neumann and Carrusca, youngsters Evan Kostopoulos, Iain Ramsay and club stalwart Fabian Barbiero, can increase their output, then another season outside of the top six/finals spots beckons.
Adelaide scored the least and conceded the most goals last season, so without significant signings it could lose touch in a league in which other clubs have either retained their strong core (Brisbane Roar, Central Coast) or bolstered with key signings (Wellington Phoenix, Melbourne Victory, Perth Glory, Sydney FC, Newcastle Jets).
If it cannot sustain the pace across the season and begins running out of legs into the new year, Adelaide could find itself in the bottom half glut alongside expected stragglers Western Sydney and Melbourne Heart. A big turn around is needed, from either the group that failed to deliver last season or the two imports. It’s a lot to ask.
But Adelaide needs to either extend its Asian Champions League run or show genuine signs of improvement in the A-League to get the buzz back to Hindmarsh Stadium, once a fortress for the team but now easy picking for visiting teams.
The crowd average dipped under five figures for the first time in the club’s history last season, not helped by splintered supporter groups and just two home wins all season off the back of Flores’ departure and Coolen’s firing.
An encouraging 10,000-plus crowd for the recent midweek Asian Champions League quarter-final, in the midst of the hysteria around the Adelaide Crows’ AFL finals run, showed that Adelaide still has the club’s back. Results are needed and while those fans were treated to some encouraging attacking play, the end result was yet another squandered lead.
Prediction: Eighth.
Player movements:
Ins: Jeronimo Morales Neumann (Independiente Rivadavia – Argentina), Fabio Ferreira (NSW Super League), Marcelo Carrusca (CA San Martín – Argentina), Jake Barker-Daish (Gold Coast United), Daniel Bowles (Gold Coast United).
Outs: Francisco Usucar (Técnico Universitario, Uruguay), Mark Birighitti (Newcastle Jets), Spase Dilevski (Melbourne Victory), Daniel Mullen (Dalian Aerbin, Chinese Super League).
Here is the way the Roar expert panel sees all the action unfolding across the final weekend of play prior to the semi-finals.
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