“When you give away Christmas presents, it makes it very, very difficult to win games,” is how Carl Veart dissected Adelaide United’s 3-1 loss to Wellington Phoenix.
It was a trip to forget for third-placed Adelaide, who were swept aside by the Phoenix despite Craig Goodwin’s stunning free-kick at Sky Stadium in the Isuzu UTE A-League on Saturday afternoon.
Goodwin cancelled out Oskar Zawada’s opener before Bozhidar Kraev and Yan Sasse scored to lift Wellington to fourth in the table as Adelaide’s Ben Halloran saw red for a second yellow card.
Afterwards, Adelaide head coach Veart lamented the result as the Reds had their four-match unbeaten streak against Wellington snapped.
“When you give away very soft goals… when you give away Christmas presents, it makes it very, very difficult to win games,” Veart said.
It could have been worse for Adelaide after Joe Gauci saved Kraev’s second-half penalty.
Goodwin, back in the line-up after missing Round 7 following the FIFA Men’s World Cup, cut a frustrated figure post-match.
“To be honest you could say the bested us in effort but I don’t think it was a case that Wellington were unbelievable,” Goodwin told Sky Sports New Zealand.
“We were poor. We made them look good. We weren’t good enough today.”
Goodwin’s free-kick stunned the home crowd – the Australia international channelling his inner Sinisa Mihajlovic after the Serbian legend and fellow left-footer passed away from cancer.
“Obviously it was a good free-kick and happy to score. But right now, it’s shaded by the performance and loss,” he added.
“We’re a good side this year and we will do good things but this is not our best performance and we need to rectify it in our next home game.”
Wellington turned it on for their best 90-minute performance of the season.
“We were good,” said Phoenix head coach Ufuk Talay. “But coaches are never happy … we can be better.”