The Reds had opportunities to win the match at Hindmarsh Stadium after first Lucas Pantelis and then substitute Matthew Mullen brought United back level, but Travis Dodd and Dez Giraldi both missed penalties in the second half to deny United a win over their Victorian rivals.

Victory were minus talisman striker Archie Thompson - who will miss the club’s four remaining Group Stage matches with a grade two knee ligament injury - but his absence opened the door for Adrian Caceres and Nick Ward to join Danny Allsopp up front, in a move which paid early dividends.

Melbourne flew out of the box in just the 5th minute when United defender Sasa Ognenovski, who was making his debut for United, lost the ball in midfield and Caceres took advantage slipping the ball past Reds keeper Eugene Galekovic.

Dodd, who was playing as a lone striker in the absence of Bruce Djite, had a chance to equalise in the 8th minute when he latched onto a pinpoint cross from Diego but The Reds’ number 13 put his header wide.

As United started to get into the game, in the 22nd minute they did draw level when Melbourne coughed up the ball in the middle of the park, when Diego released Dodd who drew the defence, and sent Pantelis through who slotted it past Victory keeper Michael Theoklitos.

United assistant coach Phil Stubbins, standing in for Aurelio Vidmar who is still in Europe, would have been pleased with his side’s opening 45 minutes, until on the stroke of half time Danny Allsopp made the most of a Victory counter attack with Allsopp getting past Ognenovski, and placing his shot past Galekovic giving Melbourne a 2-1 lead.

Victory coach Ernie Merrick introduced a number of youngsters for the second half, including attacking options Kaz Patafta, Leandro Love and Nathan Elasi.

But Melbourne were denied a golden chance to go further in front soon after the interval when Elasi missed a one on one chance against substitute keeper Daniel Beltrame

However United would also be guilty of ruing an opportunity lost.

Robert Cornthwaite was brought down in the penalty area, and from the ensuing penalty Dodd had the keeper going the wrong way but his shot hit the post.

With less than ten minutes to go United’s continued pressure eventually did pay dividends when the ball fell to Mullen, the Qantas Young Socceroo member shrugging off his marker, and scoring with his left foot from inside the six yard box.

A late United flurry almost brought a winner as The Reds won another penalty, but Giraldi also missed his spot kick as the ball skewed way over the bar, the home side finishing the stronger but unable to capitalise with the match finishing 2-2.

Stubbins said after the match, “Obviously we gave two poor goals away but after that I think we did quite well. On the whole, to get the draw against Melbourne Victory, who we haven’t beaten in the past two games, I think we ran the game out the stronger team and I was happy with the result.”

The Reds will depart for Vietnam on Sunday morning before taking on Becamex Binh Duong on Wednesday 9 April.

Merrick welcomed the return of Steven Pace from a broken leg to the starting 11 and said confidence was high among the team ahead of its crucial AFC Champions League 2008 match against Gamba Osaka at Telstra Dome next Wednesday, 9 April.

“We’ve flown over on the morning of the game, it’s pretty hot over here and in the first half we had most of our first 11 players, which was pretty impressive, so I’d say there’s a lot of confidence going into next Wednesday’s game,” Merrick said.

“Our first half was very good with Danny Allsopp causing a lot of problems alongside Adrian Caceres and Nick Ward up front.

“We obviously missed Archie as the twin striker with Danny, but Adrian and Nick played a more attacking role and both did a terrific job.

“There was a lot of good direction in the midfield with Leigh Broxham, Steven Pace, Billy Celeski and Matthew Kemp, and the backline of Kevin Muscat, Rodrigo Vargas and Sebastian Ryall didn’t change and they did really well.

“When the younger, less experienced players came on in the second half it was a bit scrappy, but there were some impressive patches of attacking play from Kaz Patafta, Nathan Elasi and Leandro Love.”

Victory will return to Melbourne this evening and train several times before next Wednesday’s match against Gamba, which is currently one point ahead of Victory in Group G following its 4-3 win over Korea Republic’s Chunnam Dragons on Match Day 2.

Match Details
Adelaide United 2 (Pantelis, Mullen)
Melbourne Victory 2 (Caceres, Allsopp)
@ Hindmarsh Stadium