Adelaide United has impressed in its first competitive hit out since beginning pre-season training with a comfortable 2-0 win over local Super League side Adelaide Galaxy at Con Makris Park on Wednesday night.
Dutch marksman Sergio van Dijk and Argentinean playmaker Marcos Flores both found the back of the bet in a lively opening half.
The Reds squandered a number of chances in the second 45 and couldn’t find a way past Galaxy goalkeeper Julian Torresan, who produced a string of high-quality saves.
Assistant coach Phil Stubbins was pleased with what he saw and believes the squad is heading in the right direction just a month before the start of the Hyundai A-League season.
“I’m certainly very buoyed by the performance,” Stubbins said.
“Obviously in the first half we put out a select first team and it was very encouraging on the eye, and I think the mentality and the objectives that we’ve been driving over the course of pre season were witnessed in the first half and we really played with some attacking intent.”
“I thought most of the boys were fabulous in their efforts and although the score line was only 2-nil, it was a very confident and positive performance, and very encouraging.”
“To witness tonight what we’ve been trying to instill in the course of the pre season in terms of getting the ball down and playing football, I’m hoping that other people will talk about the style of football that was played tonight.”
The Reds’ next pre-season friendly is against the Wellington Phoenix at Hindmarsh Stadium on Friday week and Stubbins knows that it will be a much tougher test than the Galaxy.
“The game against Wellington will be a step up again, but having said that we’ll be hopeful that the boys adopt exactly the same mentality as what they did tonight, which is to attack and pressure high up the pitch and get the ball down and play,” Stubbins said.
“I thought there was some very encouraging signs that we played some good stuff and got around the back of their (Galaxy’s) defence a lot, and if it wasn’t for the goalkeeper having a big night out, it could have a been a bigger score in our favour.”
