Adelaide United edged closer to their second A-League premiership in three seasons despite having to settle for a scoreless draw against finals rival Queensland at Hindmarsh Stadium on Wednesday night.
The A-League’s meanest defences held firm as the two heavyweights cranked up the pressure for the 14,450 fans but couldn’t knock their opponent out.
The draw enabled Adelaide to stretch their lead at the top of the table to two points over second-placed Melbourne Victory with the Roar staying third, four points adrift.
Queensland carved out the clearer chances but inspired goalkeeping from Eugene Galekovic and wayward finishing kept Adelaide in the hunt.
Adelaide were able to get behind the Roar’s backmen that were missing the defensive experience of injured trio, Josh McCloughan, Danny Tiatto and keeper Liam Reddy.
Captain Travis Dodd crossed from the left byline in the fifth minute but midfielder Fabian Barbiero could only head weakly to the keeper at the far post.
Roar striker Sergio Van Dijk looked likely to net with a bullet header from a Michael Zullo cross in the ninth minute but Galekovic soared to his right to tip the ball over the crossbar for a corner.
Adelaide coach Aurelio Vidmar also had to shuffle his back four, inserting attack-minded Brazilian Alemao at right back for injured Daniel Mullen.
But the normally unflappable Sasa Ogenovski presented his former club with a golden chance in the 39th minute when he missed a cross and Mitch Nichols fired from close range only to see Scott Jamieson lunge in to block the goalbound shot.
Chances fell early in the second half to Adelaide, including Dodd, Robbie Cornthwaite and Lucas Pantelis but all fired wide or high.
Then the Roar summoned some reserves for a last ditch shot at top spot with Nichols firing a 25m drive just wide in the 74th minute and a minute later let fly an angled drive that Galekovic beat down to save.
But the best chance fell to Zullo in the 82nd minute when he found himself with only Galekovic to beat in the penalty box but lost his nerve and fired over the crossbar.
Barbiero failed to make Roar keeper Griffin McMaster pay for failing to hold a cross in the 85th minute as he volleyed over the crossbar too.
It was Adelaide’s ninth clean sheet of the season from 19 matches and Galekovic’s eighth.
The result of this final catch-up fixture leaves all eight clubs with two matches to play with Adelaide having the chance to virtually seal top spot on Sunday if they can beat Wellington in New Zealand.
That would automatically earn Adelaide another tilt at the Asian Champions League in 2010.
Roar coach Frank Farina believes his club is still a chance to grab a top two spot despite the dour draw in Adelaide.
“We have two home games to go, while Adelaide has two away games, which won’t be easy (against Wellington and Central Coast Mariners),” he said.
“Our destiny in terms of the top two, I believe is in our hands.”
Farina said he was surprised by Adelaide’s tactics in the first half.
“They sat back and played on the counter, which suits them,” he said.
“It was a big game (for both sides) but I don’t think the onus should have been on us to attack.”
The Roar have more injury problems with defensive revelation Luke Devere limping out in injury time with a hamstring tweak and Tahj Minniecon picking up a hip injury.
Vidmar conceded staying top would be testing.
“We’re still in with a good shot. But obviously, it’ll be tougher with two away trips,” he said.
Socceroo coach Pim Verbeek was in the stands to run his eye over some players who may be needed to face Indonesia in the Asian Cup qualifier later this month.
All RED
Guest
The best (A-League) crowd I've seen at Hindmarsh for quite an uninspiring game, there would've been a few people (including myself) leaving disappointed.
Dave
Guest
Defences well on top, neither coach willing to go all out to win and a couple of bad misses meant this was destined to be a 0-0. That siad it took an excellent save from Galekovic to keep AU in it. Terrific start to the game but it petered out and in the end was a disappointing spectacle for the neutral. certainly QR would have been ahead on points if it was a boxing match but the result suits AU more. BTW Terrific crowd again (2nd biggest HAL crowd ever at Hindmarsh) and good to see Adelaide supporting their team.
Kazama
Roar Guru
I actually thought it was a poor game, the worst I had seen at Hindmarsh for some time. Maybe I've been spolit - the last 0-0 draw at Hindmarsh was in March last year v Changchun Yatai. I thought the Roar was the better team and a bit unlucky not to win it. I think our players did ok but we never really looked threatening. The two defenses dominated the match. Younis and Cristiano, playing as lone strikers, seemed very out of place in that role. Barbiero was trying too hard all night and ruined a few moves for us. Pantelis and Cassio did not have good games. I thought both sides' passing was very ordinary. It was a frustrating game to watch. The referee and his assistants did not have a good game IMO. The three of them seemed to miss a few incidents and made some bad calls for both sides. I felt the defenders were given too much leeway as Ognenovski was all over van Dijk for most of the night, as was Moore on Younus. During a free kick Dodd was thrown to the ground by Seo but nothing was given despite it being right in front of the assistant.
The Bear
Guest
Finno ... both teams were happy with a point. It shows Farina is being conservative this season. Perhaps he is right, take the money and run.... finals football and the chance for an ACL spot is a now a very good bet for the Roar. I wonder tho about pre-match reports of "all or nothing" .... Franky's "tough" talk, as per usual. The Kruse - Zullo combo almost unlocked it. Shame. ps the C-M label the video link (Foxsports) for the game as a Dour 0-0 draw. WTF? From a Roar's perspective it was anything but. Piss poor effort by the C-M.
Finno
Guest
It was a good game, the Roar played out of thier skin and look really promising. I think the deserved a win but a draw v AU away id take any day. Sydney this w/end will be tough as they are going to be very attacking should be quite a few goals in it....