Adelaide United will not get its dream meeting with Manchester United next Thursday, after they went down 1-0 to Gamba Osaka at the Toyota Stadium in Nagoya tonight at the FIFA Club World Cup.
It was the same result as the AFC Champions League final, but it was far more impressive performance from The Reds and unlike the previous meetings, Adelaide had their chances to take the game further.
In the end it was Yasuhito Endo, the most dangerous player on the pitch, who decided the match in the 23rd minute. He capitalised on some loose marking, as he made his way from deep to meet a Ryuji Bando nod-down and hit his shot through the legs of the advancing Eugene Galekovic.
Travis Dodd went agonisingly close on three occasions in the match, while a deflection from a Japanese defender and a Robbie Younis volley near the end were only inches away from giving Adelaide a goal their play deserved.
Adelaide started brightly enough and was certainly putting a lot of pressure on Gamba when they had possession, with Reid keeping close tabs on Endo in the middle of the pitch.
Dodd should have opened the scoring in the 15th minute when he raced onto an overhead clearance from halfway and headed goalward. Tracked by two defenders, he held them off superbly to get a shot at goal from the edge of the box, but the ball went agonisingly just past the far post.
The forced substitution of Sasaki in the 20th minute saw Endo play further on the left with Bando coming on in support of Lucas in the middle and the move paid instant dividends.
Endo started the move wide on the left near the half way and as the ball was flicked to Bando, Endo raced untracked to meet Bando-s excellent header and make no mistake with his shot.
Adelaide-s heads didn-t slip though and they enjoyed some good moments and almost were level after 32 minutes. Dodd-s volleyed cross saw Cassio and Akira Kaji jump for the ball at the far post, the ball appearing to go in, but it went off Kaji on the wrong side of the post for Adelaide.
Dodd went even closer with just three minutes left on the clock before half time, meeting Scott Jamieson-s cross with a looping header that beat the keeper, but hit the bottom of the crossbar and somehow managed to stay out and was desperately cleared away for a corner.
The second half saw Adelaide attack, although not as threatening as in the first half, with Gamba looking very dangerous on the counter. Several times they had Adelaide on the ropes only for desperate defending and good keeping from Galekovic keeping the score at 1-0.
With the game seemingly out of reach for Adelaide, injury time again provided further frustration for Adelaide, with first Robert Younis- ambitious volley from 25 yards sailing just wide and then Dodd grazed the outside of the post with a lunging header from the edge of the box, with literally seconds to go.
Despite the loss, Adelaide will remain in Japan to play African champions Al Ahly in the 5th/6th play-off match, prior to Gamba-s match against Manchester United. These matches will be played next Thursday.
