Friday night was the first time since Carl Veart has been coaching Adelaide United that the Reds have started the season at home, and it was a dream start for the Reds boss as his side beat reigning champions Central Coast three-nil at Coopers Stadium.
Both sides had plenty of opportunities to score, but only Adelaide did, with goals to Ben Halloran, Zach Clough and Nick Ansell ensuring Veart’s side kicked off the 2023-24 Isuzu UTE A-League season with three points.
Speaking after the match, Veart was pleased his side found different avenues to goal, and kept a clean sheet, while he also discussed the impressive showings by youngsters Jonny Yull and Nestory Irankunda.
Carl Veart on starting the season with a win:
“It’s always important to start the season with three points if you can. And, you know, it’s the first time we’ve started the season since I’ve been coach at home. And the performance tonight was excellent. The first 10 or 15 minutes were a little bit edgy. But after that, I thought we were very good. The Red Army (supporter group) tonight was excellent as well – the noise they made was excellent. To keep a clean sheet as well is a huge tip for our boys.”
Carl Veart on the side finding different avenues to goal after being reliant on the departed Craig Goodwin:
“I’ve said on a few occasions that when Goody was here, we relied on him all the time to be the big-time player and to do the things that we needed to be done, and now that he’s gone the other players have to step up and I think they did tonight. Ben Halloran stepped up and scored the first goal and we know what we’re going to get with Nestory (Irankunda)… I think we saw glimpses of what he can do tonight, and you know 75 minutes he looks dangerous every time he gets on the ball. So yeah, very happy. Yes, I’d still love to have Craig here, but I said from day one we had to find other solutions and I think you can see tonight that we’ve been working quite heavily on finding these different solutions.”
Carl Veart on Nick Ansell’s strong showing in defence:
“I think it’s his third season with the club. He’s had a lot of injuries here and just can’t get his body right. He’s just had a great preseason and you saw tonight, even last season when he played he just made us a lot stronger in the back. And that’s why he played again tonight. He is a true defender. You know, we’ve at times we’ve gone away as a football country, we’ve gotten away from having true defenders at the back. We’ve been more focused on ones that can play and Nick can play but his greatest asset is he’s a true defender, an old fashioned central defender. He was excellent. And I’m so glad for him and his family, that he has got through those tough times, hopefully now. And this is a big leap for him, a huge season for him.”
Carl Veart on the midfield balance with Isaías, Jonny Yull and Zach Clough working together well:
“We’ve been working all preseason on playing a little bit more through the back and through the midfield, and not having to go wide as much as we used to. And, you know, we’ve said we’ve had the three preseason games leading into this week, but that they were preseason games. It’s a little bit different when you’re playing for points. So, you at times get a little bit nervous and a little bit hesitant, and we got caught maybe a few too many times, especially early in the second half. We turned the ball over in our own half unnecessary at times. But saying that, that’s the way we want to play. We have to take the good with the bad.”
Carl Veart on Jonny Yull’s performance:
“Jonny, he is a very, very special player. And I’ve been saying that for a long time. I think he showed tonight him and Zach (Clough), you know, the more that they can play together, they’re going to be causing a lot of issues for a lot of teams, because they’re both very good at receiving balls in tight areas and playing forward.
Carl Veart on Nestory Irankunda:
“Nestor can play anywhere because he is such a powerful player. People think that all he has is the speed, but his technical ability is very good as well with both feet, and his decision making generally is very good as well. At times I think we can be a little bit hard on Nestor because we expect so much from him, but he’s still 17. He’s still learning the game so he’s still going to make mistakes, he’s still going to have periods where he’s going to be very quiet. And it’s just a matter of us keeping working with him because you know, we want Nestor to go on and play in the biggest leagues for the biggest clubs in world football. That’s what we want for a lot of these young boys that we’ve got coming through because we’ve got some. We saw tonight that we started three of the young boys and we’ve got another four or five that are waiting to get opportunities as well.”
Carl Veart on Ben Halloran’s goal and his leadership:
“Ben left for that 12-month period where he went overseas, and unfortunately, he didn’t get much game time in that 12 months. At times when you have that much time out of the game, sometimes it can take you a while to get back to your level that you expect from yourself. And that’s what I think happened last year. Hopefully we can get him back now to what it was like before he left because he’s a very dangerous player Benny. We know what his qualities are with his speed and his technical ability, and it was great to see that he got a goal tonight because I think he only got the one goal last season so yeah, it’s a great start for him.”
Adelaide United take on Melbourne City on Sunday October 29 at 6:30pm at Coopers Stadium. Tickets are available here.
