2014 FFA Cup

[ZANZIBAR]

make that 4-1 another rideot goal

[EdDog]

4-1 city. Caught the last 10 mins and looked an entertaining game. West Adelaide were down to 10 at that stage.

Pity about the weather. Crowd about 2.5k.

[ChillyPhilly]

It was definitely a good match, especially for the neutral. I watched it from the second tier of the grandstand, in front of one of the corporate boxes. A few seats to my left were Petrillo and Valkanis.

Just as the scoreline of 4-1 doesn't tell the true story of the match, it equally was NOT a game of two halves. Either side had their patch of dominance.

Last week on Friday (23 May), I attended Adelaide City v West Adelaide. Hellas won 2-1, coming from a goal down. During that game I noticed that Hellas destroyed City for pace for the most part, but City had more organisation and structure up front. This was certainly the case today.

City opened with intent and scored in the sixth and eleventh minutes through Rideout. Both goals were almost identical, stemming from an attack down the right flank. City attacked this flank for the next ten minutes.

It was Hellas' turn for much of the remainder of the first half. They made numerous chances but aside from Andijanto (I think it was) missing an open goal at the near post by mere centimetres, among other attempts, it was relatively mellow. The intent was there, however. 2-0 to City, HT.

Hellas started the second half strongly, scoring in the 48th minute with a nice turn then shot from Andijanto. It was until about 70-75 minutes in that Hellas continued to dominate, with a couple gilt-edged chances. One of them, perhaps the best for Hellas to tie it at 2-2, was a beautiful, world class long ball from defence that landed with pinpoint accuracy to Tommy Briscoe's chest. His touch was just as good, beating City goalkeeper Luke Ostbye briefly, but instead of shooting with that first touch (it would have been a guaranteed goal as Ostbye had already committed and was prone on the pitch), Briscoe attempted to dribble it and slide it across the line and into the net. Not to bed. Ostbye simply stretched out and tucked the ball into his chest.

City found rhythm late in the game, exposing Hellas' defensive structure. Some fine acting from Nicholas Bucco in the box, pretending he was 'injured', preceded the sealer for City. Bucco picked up a heavy tackle but feigned much worse. Essentially he waited in the box while play continued until an attack on Hellas' goal too place. Then, magically, he was able to leap to his feet and get involved again, to the chagrin of the West Adelaide crowd.

Some lovely build up from City resulted in a slick third for City, while a defensive lapse in the 85th minute or so closed the game at 4-1.

[ZANZIBAR]

so now we wait to see who Adelaide city,led by Damien Mori the legend of SA football, draw in the FFA cup. So to clear my confusion, soon there will be 32 teams in the cup or 64?

[shinAUFC]

Good game.

Little worried about some tackles that were thrown in when the local club play aleague clubs .

There was a ten minute period i expected to see a broken leg

[Stuckey]

so now we wait to see who Adelaide city,led by Damien Mori the legend of SA football, draw in the FFA cup. So to clear my confusion, soon there will be 32 teams in the cup or 64?

Adelaide City will be one of the 32 clubs along with the 10 HAL clubs.

It was a big weekend for the FFA Cup with 7 clubs making it.

So far the entrants are:
Adelaide United
Brisbane Roar
Central Coast Mariners
Melbourne Heart
Melbourne Victory
Newcastle Jets
Perth Glory
Sydney FC
Wellington Phoenix
Western Sydney Wanderers
Australian Capital Territory - Tuggeranong United
New South Wales - Blacktown City
New South Wales - Manly United
New South Wales - South Coast Wolves
New South Wales - Sydney Olympic
Queensland - Brisbane Strikers
Queensland - Olympic FC
South Australia - Adelaide City

Already 4 old NSL clubs involved!

[sevengoals]

Thanks for the write up ChillyPhilly!
The score does not sound half as bad after reading about the run of the game.

Wow, the future is here.

[Old Gregg]

As a neutral it was a very entertaining game and pretty high quality. The way City played in the first half was especially good - controlling the midfield, and drawing Hellas out before pulling the trigger on a defence-splitting pass...

To be honest it looked like the game was all over after 25 minutes, City had WA bent over a barrel - playing both wingers wide, right up on the last line. Hellas' LB (#4) was all at sea up against Joel Allwright who got round him time & time again and slotted twice. Porter shuffled things around (in particular switching #4 out of the defensive line!) and Hellas started to get into the game..

Second half they started the stronger team, still didn't have the same class of passing through midfield as City but up front they were getting very threatening and Andijanto pulled a goal back with a nice finish...

At this stage it was definitely game on, Hellas were in the ascendency and they were playing the better football, if they continued that way they would have given the match a real shake. But for some reason they started focusing on the 'physical' game, flying in to tackles and trying to kick City off the park rather than beat them with the ball.. even by the time they had a man sent off I think they had beaten themselves psychologically.

The ref was very good & even-handed - but if anything a little bit soft, if he'd shown a yellow or two for some of the fouls earlier on (there were plenty that deserved it) the game may not have deteriorated into the hackfest that it did. There was a melee around 80 mins or something where there were some punches thrown etc, both sides could have easily had a send-off there as well.

As it was Hellas unsettled themselves & let City back in the game. Rideout scored an absolute cracker from range and it was all over, he got another one from a tap-in just before FT as icing on the cake.

Chilly I have to disagree with you about Bucco's 'acting'. He copped a forceful knee right in the small of the back and he was very obviously in pain, when he jumped back up as the ball came up that end again he didn't try to get back into play but moved back towards the midfield, I think he was initially just getting out of the way of the game. He was subbed off, injured, soon after.

[mcjules]

There was a melee around 80 mins or something where there were some punches thrown etc, both sides could have easily had a send-off there as well.

I thought more people in the crowd saw what happened there but it was started when a Hellas player kicked a City player behind the play. The ref had his back to it but I thought the linesman saw it. Was really surprised when only a yellow was given.

[Old Gregg]

Yep. Started with the kick, then of course everyone jumped in, pushing and shoving and a few fists being swung about. Surprised the ref went to talk to the official on the near touchline, surely the linesman on the other side would have seen it & had something to say?

[Stuckey]

What was the crowd like? Apparently 2,500 showed up.

[sevengoals]

Red cards, melee, flying tackles, and some good football in between.
The black and white against the blue and white.
The best Derby of the old NSL.

I am 12 years old again.
Where's Kosmina and Polonia?

My thanks to everyone for the reports.

[Stuckey]

So far the entrants are:
Adelaide United
Brisbane Roar
Central Coast Mariners
Melbourne Heart
Melbourne Victory
Newcastle Jets
Perth Glory
Sydney FC
Wellington Phoenix
Western Sydney Wanderers
Australian Capital Territory - Tuggeranong United
New South Wales - Blacktown City
New South Wales - Manly United
New South Wales - South Coast Wolves
New South Wales - Sydney Olympic
New South Wales - Sydney United 58
New South Wales - Hakoah Sydney City East
Queensland - Brisbane Strikers
Queensland - Olympic FC
South Australia - Adelaide City
Western Australia - Bayswater City
Western Australia - Stirling Lions

So another 4 sides has made it thru during the week.
Only 10 more spots left.

[Stuckey]

Adelaide United
Brisbane Roar
Central Coast Mariners
Melbourne Heart
Melbourne Victory
Newcastle Jets
Perth Glory
Sydney FC
Wellington Phoenix
Western Sydney Wanderers
Australian Capital Territory - Tuggeranong United
New South Wales - Blacktown City
New South Wales - Manly United
New South Wales - South Coast Wolves
New South Wales - Sydney Olympic
New South Wales - Sydney United 58
New South Wales - Hakoah Sydney City East
Queensland - Brisbane Strikers
Queensland - Olympic FC
South Australia - Adelaide City
Western Australia - Bayswater City
Western Australia - Stirling Lions
Tasmania - South Hobart

The Tasmanian entrant has be finalised now.
23 clubs are in 9 spots remain.

[Stuckey]

Adelaide United
Brisbane Roar
Central Coast Mariners
Melbourne Heart
Melbourne Victory
Newcastle Jets
Perth Glory
Sydney FC
Wellington Phoenix
Western Sydney Wanderers
Australian Capital Territory - Tuggeranong United
New South Wales - Blacktown City
New South Wales - Manly United
New South Wales - South Coast Wolves
New South Wales - Sydney Olympic
New South Wales - Sydney United 58
New South Wales - Hakoah Sydney City East
New South Wales - South Cardiff
New South Wales - Broadmeadow Magic
Queensland - Brisbane Strikers
Queensland - Olympic FC
Queensland - Far North Queensland
Queensland - Palm Beach
South Australia - Adelaide City
Western Australia - Bayswater City
Western Australia - Stirling Lions
Tasmania - South Hobart
Victoria - Bentleigh Greens
Victoria - South Springvale
Victoria - St Albans Saints

There has been a host of entrants qualified now. 31 confirmed clubs.
We now just await the result of the tie between old rivals South Melbourne and Melbourne Knights to see the final spot filled.