Two out of three ain’t bad for Perth Glory who overcame a tough schedule to register their first A-League win of the season, 3-1 over Adelaide at nib Stadium.
Glory had lost their first two A-League matches to Central Coast and Wellington before beating Melbourne City in Wednesday’s FFA Cup semi-final.
With a third game in eight days they had every reason to look fatigued but dominated on Sunday to log the victory.
The Glory scored through Sidnei Sciola in the first half and Guyon Fernandez in the second.
The win was sealed with a third to Diego Castro before an own goal for Adelaide made it 3-1.
Adelaide remain winless after starting with two draws under new coach Guillermo Amor.
The visitors controlled much of the first half before Gyorgy Sandor delivered a perfect pass for Sciola who sprung the offside trap, was left one-on-one with ‘keeper John Hall and made it 1-0 for Perth.
Glory made a change at half-time bringing on under pressure Dutch striker Fernandez to give Chris Harold a rest, and it paid dividends in the 60th minute.
Captain Richard Garcia put in a perfect cross and Fernandez delivered a stunning finish to put a slow start in the A-League behind him.
Castro then also came on to score his first A-League goal on the back of another pass from Garcia in the 72nd minute.
Adelaide got on the board in the 75th minute – but also from a Glory boot – as Diogo Ferreira intercepted a cross for the Reds in the box by Sergio Cirio.
Glory hit the road to play the winless Western Sydney Wanderers next Sunday while Adelaide are away against Brisbane on Saturday.
Glory coach Kenny Lowe couldn’t have been happier with the win to open their account this season on the back of making a second straight FFA Cup final.
“If you’d written down what you wanted to achieve by giving people a rest and trying to hit them on the counter, we couldn’t have written it any better,” Lowe said.
“We’ve come out of without injuries, we’ve won, the foreign boys have scored and played really well, and the game plan worked a treat. I think I better retire, it doesn’t get any better than that.”
Adelaide coach Amor will continue to back his team’s style despite the dominance in possession not converting into scoring opportunities.
“We need to accept that we had the initiative, and control of the game, and we came here to win the game but for different reasons we couldn’t get the three points,” he said.
“We have a style that we want to play and today it didn’t work out. In football you need to believe in what you believe in, and this style and philosophy is something that will grow with this team.”
AZ_RBB
Guest
The City Football Group I believe threw a handsome sum of money at him to help them set up an academy in NYC.
Matthew
Guest
Why am I missing Gombau? Im not a Adelaide United supporter (Perth Glory Supporter). Why did Gombau leave again? A Better offer or the rumored issues with the owners of the team?
Franko
Guest
Sanchez is no good, Djite and Bablj are out and Mabil / Ferreria have left huge gaps on the right. We need firepower, who knows where it will come from.
jamesb
Guest
Adelaide is missing Gombau. The league is missing Gombau.
Bondy
Guest
Although early days Adelaide Utd appear to have regressed this year .
Brick Tamland of the pants party
Guest
I think i read Adelaide's CB's had completed more passes to each other than the whole Glory team, crazy isn't it?.
Brick Tamland of the pants party
Guest
A good few days, two wins and a spot in the FFA cup final with 6 goals to boot. Ok not really the style of play you want to see your team play at home yesterday but as Lowe says we had to be careful with the players with 3 games in a week. As far as a counter attacking game plan goes that was executed perfectly, very well organized defensively i don't think Covic had to make a save and every meaningful attack for us seemed to end up in the back of the net. Tough run of games coming up which will determine whether Glory will be a genuine threat this season or not.
AZ_RBB
Guest
I was watching when the first goal went in and I was shocked at how toothless Adelaide looked in possession. They were horribly flat footed when they gave away possession and all it took was a couple of half decent passes from Perth and they were through on goal. I know my own Wanderers often look frantic and confused when passing it out from the back but I expect better from Adelaide.
TheVolley
Guest
It's time for Adelaide to hit the panic button. After 3 rounds they have really not been able to score goals at all bar help from the opposition and defensively not looked good. It's really not encouraging at all.
Waz
Guest
Pleased for Perth and their fans; that was a good win. Adelaide are clearly not firing on all cylinders - by half time they'd had 70% possession but only one shot, the second half was slightly better but 3-1 down with that much possession is almost inexplicable. That said, 3 out of 5 winners this weekend did it with significantly less possession than the team they defeated - a new trend?