What a great return it was to HBF Park on Sunday afternoon, nearly four months since last playing there. For Adelaide United, that is.
As for the men in purple, it was a very underwhelming display in front of a crowd who had waited so patiently for the chance to see them in action again.
Coming off a gutsy performance against Melbourne City and playing with an unchanged starting lineup, I was optimistic we could start our run of home fixtures on the right foot.
It wasn’t to be the case. This game just highlighted in front of a home audience the main issues we’ve had this season.
I was genuinely surprised to see we managed 16 shots on goal, ahead of Adelaide’s 14. It’s only the second time this season we’ve had more shots than our opposition.
That suggests we created some good chances throughout the game, but it simply wasn’t the case. I only recall two shots which were great scoring opportunities.
The first was a strike from Bruno Fornaroli in the first half, who waited patiently for an opening in the box and gave Joe Gauci a bit of work to do in the Adelaide goal.
The second was the penalty, nicely tucked away by Bruno after a clumsy foul on Pacifique Niyongabire by Michael Jakobsen.
We saw it in the games against Macarthur and Western United; when the opposition sits deep and lets us have the ball, we really struggle to break teams down defensively.
When Adelaide went 2-0 up, they did the same thing and we couldn’t do anything meaningful with the ball in the attacking third.
A resulting side effect was the Reds could play on the counter, and that’s how we conceded the all-important second goal just before the hour mark.
Mo Toure received the ball near the halfway line and sprinted ahead of Darryl Lachman. The defender managed to get back but didn’t get close enough to the 17-year-old. He squeezed his shot into an impossible gap at the near post.
Cameron Cook was in goal for the second half, coming on for Liam Reddy after he suffered a minor hip flexor injury. I have been a fan of Cook and didn’t think he should have been dropped in the first place, but this was a bad mistake from the young keeper. He can’t be letting those creep in.
Richard Garcia pointed out individual errors as the root cause for this defeat, but the blame should be put on the team performance.
The defensive pressure was off the mark from the get-go. Adelaide were able to work the ball around with too much ease for my liking in the first half. I didn’t think we were great at winning the ball back in midfield either.
Conversely, Adelaide put us under the pump when we had the ball in our defensive half. The late corner resulting in the goal came from this.
Adelaide trapped us in the corner and rather than getting it clear, we tried to pass our way out and lost the ball. Hiroshi Ibusuki stung the gloves of Liam Reddy from distance, and then he overpowered Jonathan Aspropotamitis at the back post from the corner.
Going back to the attack, our ball movement was again too slow. Too often the ball would circle between the defenders and the midfielders. The decision making in our build up needs to improve, the decisiveness in front of goal isn’t there.
A pet peeve of mine is when we have a chance to shoot, but we try and be too clever. Pacifique Niyongabire is a culprit of this. Yes, he won the pen and was the man who looked most likely to create something in the second half, but it frustrates me to no end.
It’s not just him. Joe Gauci made an error passing out from the back in the first half and we had a glorious chance to take advantage, but it lead to nothing since no one pulled the trigger.
One last point on the attack. Andy Keogh came on for Daniel Stynes and played as a number 10. Fornaroli, Niyongabire and Adrian Sardinero played as the front three for the last 20 minutes.
I know we needed a goal, but why was Andy Keogh receiving the ball in midfield and not near the box? He hasn’t scored in a while, but he’s much better in the box from close range. He’s not the guy who will spray passes around and score thunderbolts from long range. A strange choice by Richard Garcia.
Adelaide are up to third and deserved the three points. Craig Goodwin played well on the left, swinging in some good crosses, and got the assist for the first goal. Ibusuki got that goal and set up Mo Toure for the second. One of his best games in an Adelaide shirt.
Not the way to start a very important home run. At least we get a bit of a break before returning to action on Saturday afternoon against Sydney FC. We’ve beaten them already this season, and we need to do it again. Good results have to come from home games from this point onwards, no ifs or buts about it.
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