Reds Midfield Domination

Throughout their inaugural season in the A-League, Western has presented a point of difference with the rest of the competition thanks to their ability to reliably build up from the back through a combination of level-headedness and moments skill.

In part, this reliance on meticulous build-up play has been forced by the personnel at the disposal of Head Coach Mark Rudan – a midfield largely made up of players on the wrong side of 30 not inclined to get up and down the pitch again and again and again over 90 minutes.

But on Sunday, that inability to impose their physical will came back to bite them as the Reds dominated the hosts.

Adelaide is a side that can run with anyone in the A-League and their willingness to press and harangue their opposition in defence and attempt to get out and move forward when they had the ball forced United into one of the worst first halves of their existence. 

Perhaps it was poetic justice that Panagiotis Kone, just weeks after penning a piece were he described the A-League’s dependence on pace and power, was forced into error after error and left wanting defensively by the Reds ability to get out and run.

And while Adelaide was unable to prevent Western from equalising in the second-half, their ability to get out and run was clear and obvious on Konstandopoulos’ winner when he was one of a number of hard-running Adelaide midfielders arriving late into the box with nary a Green and Black shirt to be seen around them.

“We were very flat in that first half,” Rudan said post-game.

“Probably the worse we’ve played in 45 minutes of football in terms of the flatness and not doing the things that we worked on during the week.”

Red rising?

Adelaide had been in somewhat of a tailspin heading into round 15 of the season, with Gertjan Verbeek publicly and privately applying the blow torch to his side after the fourth defeat on the bounce against Perth Glory.

But now up to fifth after back-to-back wins over Melbourne Victory and Western, the Reds are just three points back from fourth-placed Wellington and four back from third-placed Perth Glory.

McGree, a goal to his name on Sunday, continues to play his way back into form after missing rounds nine through 12 on the season and the club will welcome back phenom Al Hassan Toure from Olyroos duty in the coming weeks.

All up, it points to a possible revival at Hindmarsh Stadium - the Reds certainly looking as though they could beat anyone one their day. 

Nonetheless, don’t try to tell Gertjan Verbeek that – the first-year Head Coach already wary of the chaos that the A-League can throw up.

“It’s a crazy competition,” he said.

“Not in the way it’s going, but we have to play three times against Sydney, we have to play three times against Central Coast, we have to play three times against Melbourne City. So it’s a lottery.

“You never know. Some teams you have already played twice and some teams you meet for the first time. Normally, when it’s going like I’m used to in Europe you know where you stand, but here you don’t know.

“You have to be a bit lucky. We are lucky we don’t have to go to Wellington twice.

“That’s also a factor on who will come into the top six. It’s strange to play with 11 teams and only 27 games.

“I don’t know a competition where that’s the same.”

Golden Berisha

The venerable Berisha may not have the speed in his legs that he had in his youth, but his hunger for goals remains as sharp as ever.

The 34-year-old added A-League goals 125 and 126 in the first half of Sunday’s contest, moving him into sixth on the all-time Australian national league scoring ranks, just a single goal behind Pablo Cardozo. They were his tenth and eleventh goals on the season. 

Making Berisha's career tally even more impressive is that he has tallied his goals in just 200 games. His goal per games ratio is the best of any of the five players above him, with only John Kosmina (133 goals in 289 games) under 300 games played.  

“He got us back into the game,” said Rudan.

“[He had] two fantastically well-taken goals. He continues to score goals and that’s what he’s paid to do. Although he was getting tired towards the end of the game you can never take away the goals he’s scored.

“It’s a credit to him, 200 games is a great achievement and his goals to game ration, I don’t want to say second to none because Damien Mori was pretty good too but he’s right there.”