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Adelaide United returned to the summit of the A-League while also consigning former boss John Kosmina’s Sydney FC to another week of uncertainty with a 2-0 victory at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.
Left winger Cassio opened the scoring with his fourth goal of the season, passed home in added time at the end of the first half, and substitute Alemao made the result safe by netting artfully on the break as a desperate Sydney pushed forward.
That was enough to earn United their win over opponents who were undoubtedly committed yet lacking in the cutting edge required to breach the Reds defence.
Sydney’s defeat gave them a quartet of losses from as many matches, and left them a forlorn six points out of the league top four with only three fixtures remaining.
Kosmina was already thought to be under pressure to keep to his post and there is sure to be more speculation this week in the wake of his unhappy return to Adelaide.
The Reds, meanwhile, are in fine shape ahead of their pivotal encounter with title rivals Melbourne Victory at Telstra Dome on Tuesday night.
They were well served by Kristian Sarkies, who followed up his appearance on the scoresheet last week by providing the assists for both United goals, evidence he is finally getting comfortable after a slow start at the club.
Centre-half Sasa Ognenovski showed few signs he was distracted by the Korean clubs chasing his signature in a typically stingy display.
Watched by Socceroos boss Pim Verbeek among a handsome holiday crowd of 23,002, Sydney had played with the sort of early spunk befitting of a team playing for their season to prevent United from working to their strengths.
But as they have done for several weeks, the visitors were unable to cap tactical proficiency with a crisp finish, and United came ever closer to nabbing the lead.
Wide men Cassio and Travis Dodd grew in influence and eventually they broke through in the shadows of halftime.
Dodd’s dribble into the box saw the ball break to Sarkies, and his shrewd centre found Cassio with enough space to slide beyond Ivan Necevski from close range.
Much of the second 45 minutes unfolded in United’s half, but the home side blunted most of Sydney’s attacks with ease and it was no great surprise when Sarkies’ visionary ball over the top allowed the fresh Alemao to dink home a second.
Matthew Jurman was sent off in the dying moments for a second yellow card to add to Kosmina’s discontent.
Kosmina said the result had put paid to Sydney’s faltering season.
“Yeah I don’t think we can get there,” he said.
“We’d need a lot of luck with other results, the best we can get is 29 points, so you’d basically say we’re history.”
Adelaide coach Aurelio Vidmar was pleased to see conjecture over Ognenovski’s likely offshore future had not reduced his value on the park.
“I said yesterday that there’s certain players when something like that happens it can affect them, but certainly Sasa’s in the category where it doesn’t matter what’s happening on the outside he can still get onto the pitch and focus 100 per cent,” he said.
“He was very good tonight but we had a lot of good contributors – there was no-one outstanding, but certainly a very good group effort.”
Both Adelaide captain Travis Dodd and Sydney skipper Steve Corica were critical of a billard table-like surface, complete with cricket pitches, that often saw the ball run out of reach, making weighted passing virtually impossible.
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