Adelaide United and the Newcastle Jets have played out an absorbing 1-1 draw at Hindmarsh Stadium on Monday.
Adelaide United and the Newcastle Jets have played out an absorbing 1-1 draw at Hindmarsh Stadium on Monday.
The Jets took the lead when Jin-Hyung Song scored an early goal before the Reds found the equaliser through a sizzling strike from Cassio at the76th minute.
Song’s goal stemmed from an Adam D’Apuzzo contest with Travis Dodd on the left hand side.
D’Apuzzo stripped the Reds captain of the ball, centred the ball across the ‘D’ where Song had no problem dragging the ball past goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic.
United grew in confidence as the match progressed but was under extreme pressure before Cassio scored.
The Brazilian was in space just outside the box when a bouncing ball spilled his way. He got great connection, sent the ball sailing into the right hand corner of the net and left Jets goalkeeper Ben Kennedy flat footed.
It sparked an exciting conclusion to the contest with Reds substitutes Mathew Leckie and Cristiano unlucky not to register their team’s second goal.
Newcastle had opportunities too with Jobe Wheelhouse finding the back of the net at the 86th minute before being deemed offside while Tarek Elrich’s curling attempt during injury time narrowly missed the target.
The action packed second half also featured a Travis Dodd penalty kick but the Reds captain was denied a goal by a diving Kennedy.
Adelaide United coach Aurelio Vidmar said the draw was a ‘frustrating’ result.
“It really took us about 70 minutes to get going today and I thought the last 20 minutes or so was very, very good, how we should play and how I know the boys can play,” Vidmar said.
Newcastle coach Branko Culina was pleased with the performance but disappointed his players didn’t take their opportunities to secure a valuable away win.
“I thought in the second half Adelaide came back and put a fair bit of pressure on us and then we came to life again towards the end,” Culina said.
“We played great football at times without taking full advantage because real top teams would’ve buried Adelaide in the first half.”
Newcastle had all the momentum after its early goal with Song, Labinot Haliti and D’Apuzzo regularly making runs through the Reds’ jittery defence in the first half.
Ali Abbas was also a threat with his blazing left foot at the 27th minute and another shot on target a few minutes later causing some nervous moments for Galekovic, while Nikolai Topor-Stanley was an aerial force for the visitors.
Adelaide was winning plenty of the ball but its execution was below par. Too many of its players’ crosses were sailing over their targets and there were too many turnovers in the midfield.
But the Reds did improve as the half progress and Lloyd Owusu worked his way into the contest. At the 41st minute he nodded a corner kick to ground but watched with dismay as it ballooned over the crossbar.
And a few minutes later he headed a cross but was off target.
The Reds were on the front foot in the second half with the home side winning a couple of corners while coach Aurelio Vidmar brought on Leckie for midfielder Adam Hughes.
And when Ljubo Milicevic brought Lucas Pantelis down in the box the Hindmarsh Stadium crowd had high hopes of an equaliser.
But Dodd wasn’t up for the challenge and the pressure escalated.
The introduction of Cristiano added further attacking flair to the Reds game but they were unable to find the match winner.
Adelaide United 1 (Cassio 76)
Newcastle Jets 1 (Song 6)
Crowd: 12,090 at Hindmarsh Stadium
