Adelaide United have made a winning start to their AFC Champions League Two campaign, cruising to a 3-0 victory over Hong Kong champions Tai Po at Coopers Stadium.
The Reds were dealt an injury blow ahead of kick-off with experienced defender Bart Vriends withdrawn from the warm-up after picking up an injury meaning young defender Sotiri Phillis came into the side.
An early sighter towards goal aside, Airton Andrioli’s team controlled the contest at home and made the breakthrough in the 19th minute as an excellent ball from Jonny Yull found Jay Barnett charging forward from right back, with the defender then playing a deft pass back into the path of Ethan Alagich who drilled the ball beyond the Tai Po keeper.
Handed a start on the night, young striker Brody Burkitt lashed an effort towards goal from distance which required a good save before half-time but the Reds wasted little time in extending their lead after the break.
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Bringing the ball out of the Reds defence Panagiotis Kikianis was afforded too much time and space and subsequently made Tai Po pay as played a brilliant defence-splitting pass into the feet of the advancing Juan Muñiz and the spaniard cooly dispatched the ball beyond Tse Ka Wing to make it 2-0.
Now trailing by two, Tai Po did threaten the Adelaide goal but the game was soon put to bed by second-half substitute and club captain Craig Goodwin, who combined well with left-back Fabian Talladira on the edge of the box before finding the back of the net with his trusty left foot.
The moment was a special one for Socceroo Goodwin, who marked his first appearance for the Reds in Asian competition with a goal ahead of a domestic season where he will once again captain his boyhood club.
“Yeah, really happy considering the fact that the last time we played a competitive match is about like a month and in seven days or something that, and that long since we last played a match,” Andrioli said in his post-match press conference.
“It’s not easy to come into a game like this and play with the intensity and tempo we played.
“Obviously, they are a team that were defending deep, and as you know, one of the hardest things in football is to break down compact defences.
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“But credit to the boys, I was really happy with some of the football we played, you know, for our first match, and we got the results. So we’re pleased with that.
He added: “We looked a little bit at the way they play. They’ve played about four to five matches in the league, and what we noticed was that they normally defend quite deep, sitting in a block and then looking to hit teams on transition.
“So we knew that they were looking to sit deep, I think it’s a credit to the boys because, as I said before, not having match fitness and maintaining that intensity throughout the game, we scored one, then we scored the second, and they had to come out.
“They didn’t have the legs to keep up with us, so and that’s a credit to the players tonight.”
The result sees Adelaide United sit top of Group F, with their next ACL Two clash coming in a month’s time when they face Thai side BG Pathum United FC on October 15 in Thailand.
