Pre Season Challenge: Adelaide United v Newcastle United Jets Match Thread

[Ray Nolan]

All discussion for the Group A Pre Season Challenge match between Adelaide United & Newcastle United Jets may be posted on this thread. It will be stickied until next Tuesday.

 

[Ray Nolan]

OK, I think after last weeks 50 minute no-show Kossie is going to have to change it up. Here is what I would be selecting if I were in his shoes:

------------------Beltrame------------------

---Alagich---Valkanis---Rees---van Domelle---

-----------------Costanzo(c)----------------

----Dodd-----------Aloisi--------Pantelis-----

-----------------Qu---Bugeja----------------

 

[DB10]

That's what I'd play. Matricciani is fit again, isn't he? Hopefully he'd game time, and hopefully Richie is over the flu. Keep Vidmar off the pitch preferably.

 

[Ray Nolan]

Don't think Matrish is fit yet. According to this morning's paper Pantelis has been left out of the squad again.

 

[DB10]

Don't think Matrish is fit yet. According to this morning's paper Pantelis has been left out of the squad again.

If he's not playing in round 1 against NUJFC up there than we need to organise to bring a large banner saying: "PLAY PANTELIS."

 

[Ray Nolan]

Good idea! Seems as if we are going with the same starting XI tonight - oh joy.

 

[Ray Nolan]

ADELAIDE AND NEWCASTLE ALL TIED UP

Friday 29 July 2005
By Andrew Howe

A tight Group A pre-season cup match at Hindmarsh Stadium saw honours shared yet again, with Adelaide United and Newcastle United drawing 1-1 on the scoreboard - and 1-1 in the disallowed goals category.

An uneventful first half in front of almost 7000 spectators ended goalless, with the most exciting incident coming very early in proceedings when Adelaide had its goal disallowed.

The 4th minute passage of play started with Angelo Costanzo laying the ball off to Carl Veart, whose shot from 30 metres was parried by the goalkeeper into Ross Aloisi; the Adelaide midfielder managed to find the net with a well placed first-time shot, but was ruled off-side by an observant assistant referee.

The first half then grinded down to a dull affair, with neither team prepared to take any chances.

It was a different story in the second half however, which started with a rash challenge by Newcastle’s Allan Picken on Aurelio Vidmar. Once the resulting melee died down Picken was shown the only yellow card of the game.

In the 62nd minute it was Newcastle’s turn to have a goal ruled out. The exciting Nick Carle had made a useful run in towards goal, passed on to Labinot Haliti who then found team-mate Matthew Thompson, whose strike into goal was judged to have been scored from an off-side position.

With both sides having shifted several gears up, Adelaide scored the first legitimate goal in the 74th minute. A corner from second half substitute Shengqing Qu lobbed in to the middle of a very congested goalmouth, and it was a lucky Michael Valkanis (pictured above) who claimed the goal when the ball appeared to bounce off his torso and over the line.

Newcastle struck back almost immediately, raiding the Adelaide goal area three times before eventually managing to convert. Nick Carle released a nice backheel to Guy Bates, who ran sideways and laid off a short pass to the rampaging Richard Johnson, who rammed the ball home from 18 metres directly in front of goal. There was little Adelaide goalkeeper Daniel Beltrame could do to stop the 79th minute goal as the ball shot in a few centimetres inside the left goalpost.

The home side almost stole the match in the final minutes, firstly when Chad Bugeja almost got to an near-perfect diagonal cross from Richie Alagich, and then in the 88th minute when the same two players combined; a fine save from the outstretched hands of Newcastle custodian Liam Reddy denying Bugeja a headed opportunity from just four metres out.

Best players for Adelaide were Alagich and a hard working Veart, while Thompson, Craig Deans and Haliti were the pick of the bunch for the away side.

 

[Ray Nolan]

We really could've & should've won the game. If only that early goal by Aloisi had been allowed, it could've been so different. Even so I thought our first half performance was good, to keep our heads after the disappointment of having the goal disallowed, have the lions share of the possession and move the ball around nicely was encouraging. There was just one problem though. We had no-one up front. I think Veart and Vidmar's performances speak for themselves. It was painful watching Viddie out there. I don't want to remember him for performances like that because back in the day he was a great player. Veart was given a tough time by the Jets defenders and made little headway, he did run himself into the ground though.

Costanzo was again fantastic in the middle but I thought Kemp & Dodd were quiet on the flanks. Dodd again started on the left - why? Whatever the problem between Pantelis & Kosmina it has got to be sorted out. It was the type of game crying out for Lucas, when we had all that possession we needed someone with a turn of pace to run at their defenders and set up chances. It is the same reason Qu & Bugeja should've started, the improvement in the final third was immediately obvious and we looked much more dangerous. The defence was solid, the back 5 all had a good game IMO.

The second half was pretty good as well, although it could've been a terrible start had that Jets goal not been disallowed. Once Qu & Bugeja got on it was only a matter of time until we scored and Qu's beautiful corner was met by our deadly marksman - Micky Valkanis! The only thing that stopped us winning the game was that we sat back after the goal and invited the pressure and boy didn't Richard Johnson take advantage, it was a cracking shot. I don't think Beltrame saw it due to the defender being in front but even so I doubt he'd have stopped it. We were unlucky to not win with that Bugeja header late but Reddy made a fantastic save. Qu & Bugeja need to work on their understanding but I'm sure that will come.

At the end of the day a good performance but definitely the game that got away. If we start with Qu, Bugeja & Pantelis on the pitch in Melbourne next weekend I think we will have a good chance of getting the result there. Let's hope it's another draw tomorrow night (preferably 0-0) to help our Semi-Final chances.

One last point, decent crowd tonight, looked around the 7,000 mark to me. Hopefully once the season starts we'll push over the 10,000 mark, some success in this Pre-Season Challenge would help that as well.

 

[DB10]

My player ratings:

Beltrame - 7 - he didn't have a whole lot to do during the game. Newcastle were really no better than us when it came to the final third (albeit they were missing Ante Millicic). Beltrame also had absolutely no chance for Johnson's goal; I doubt he even saw the ball until it was in the net as there were so many players in the way. I thought his clearances were a bit rubbish, though, as most of them seemed to be a bit of target practice at the West Stand!

Alagich - 8 - seems like Richie is over the flu and back to his usual best. He worked hard and offered a lot more this week down the right side, and defended well.

Rees - 7 - solid, like last week. Really, the whole back five had a great game. The only negative I could come up with from it was how they sat back after we scored and invited Newcastle to attack us when we should've gone in for the kill then.

Valkanis - 9 - his actual game performance warranted a seven but his goal gets him an extra two; our Mickey is turning into a bit of a goal machine, isn't he? He was very solid at the back.

van Dommele - 7 - very good performance by Aza again. Provided a lot of forward runs and, like, Richie defended very well. The entire back five had a really solid game, and I think AVD will be a huge player in the actual A-League proper. Rarely puts a foot wrong.

Dodd - 6 - very quiet performance by Dodd, but I guess that's what happens when Kossie keeps ****ing him about and playing him at LM when he's a right sided midfielder.

Aloisi - 7 - had a goal wrongly disallowed in the second minute, and subsequently this referee was absolutely shocking. Ross was everywhere and was putting in some good tackles. He went a bit quiet after the goal was disallowed but came back into the game once Vidmar :rollani: was taken off. Partnership with big Ange seems to be gelling together nicely as well.

Costanzo - 9 - well, what can we say? SuperAnge with yet another brilliant and rock solid performance! Tackled hard and was constantly providing that sweeper-esque cover for Rees and Valkanis. Did have a few mistakes but he was still really good.

Kemp - 6 - I like Matty a lot, but come off it Kossie ... this game was crying out for Lucas bloody Pantelis! He is quicker than Kemp is and has better ball control, so why is he constantly being left out of the team? Kossie's probably got some agenda against smaller players, although he still plays Vidmar :rollani: over Qu. Kemp did okay, and was better than last week, but I still would prefer Pantelis.

Vidmar - 1 - retire. Now. He did nothing for sixty minutes. He was passing to nobody. We had a great chance for a counter attack, all he had to do was run with the ****ing ball and Dodd would've had a clear shot at goal, but instead he ran to the centre circle (all of about five metres away), stopped, turned and got tackled. In sixty minutes of playing he did so little that the first two minutes of Qu being on the pitch we had more of an attacking threat. Retire, please, because none of us want to remember a great player like this.

Veart - 7 - worked tirelessly as usual, and tried to do something with nothing. I thought he looked a thousand times better once Vidmar was taken off, unsurprisingly.

--------------

Qu - 8 - in half an hour of playing time he set up our goal (corner onto Valkanis' head), had a really good chance himself, sent in a wonderful cross that Ross almost got onto (literally about 5cm more and it would've been a goal) and crossed the ball in that Chad almost scored from with about thirty seconds left. This bloke is going to be a star for us, I can tell.

Bugeja - 8 - like Choo he did more than Vidmar did, only in fifteen minutes. Chad could've become an AUFC legend if he had've got the bicycle kick on target, it missed the goal by about a metre and would've gone in because Reddy was in no-man's land (just quietly this guy flaps like crazy at high balls). So close, yet so far. If Chad and Choo start against the silly people we're a great chance of going through, these two have pace and ball skill that will trouble many in the A-League.

Goulding - 6 - was only on the pitch for five minutes and had little to do.

All I can say is, if we play the right players (ie. Pantelis, Qu and Bugeja) than write us off at your own peril. Newcastle are one of the favourite's to win the thing, and we completely dominated them. Take us lightly and we can beat anyone.

 

[Ray Nolan]

Agree with your analysis there DB, we are not going to be the easybeats that people in the Eastern States think we are. We have a very solid defence and central midfield that will be very tough for teams to break down. All that we need to do now to turn us into a finals contender is to sort out the flanks and the strikers and the answers are simple enough. Pantelis, Qu, Bugeja in. Vidmar, Veart & Kemp out. We are close to finding the right mix, Kosmina just has to make the tough decisions by dropping his old favourites. I'd like to see Vidmar do the right thing and hang 'em up, then we could get Mori into the side and who knows where we could go from there.

 

[ManWithNoName]

If Victory or Glory can get a win tonight they'll go through.

 

[Jars458]

Vidmar must retire. We had nothing up front for 60 minutes.

We created some nice through balls in the first half but nonone was quick enough to get near them.

Second half the supply dried up.

Veart playing wide on the right after Bugeja came on was a bit weird.

 

[DB10]

We created some nice through balls in the first half but nonone was quick enough to get near them.

That's because Vidmar is as slow as an ant. We would've had a great counter attack going if Bugeja had it instead of old man Vidmar.