Carl Veart lamented Adelaide United’s carelessness in possession and missed opportunities after a 2-1 loss to Sydney FC at Coopers Stadium on Friday night.
The Reds suffered their first defeat in six Isuzu UTE A-League games with Stefan Mauk’s first-half equaliser not enough to uphold the unbeaten streak, after substitute Bobo struck 17 minutes from time.
Hiroshi Ibusuki also had a penalty saved in the 88th minute and later should have been awarded a spot-kick himself for a seemingly blatant foul committed by a Sky Blues defender.
Veart bemoaned the sloppiness from his team and lack of intensity on the ball following a third league setback of the season.
“We were a little bit sloppy at times in the game and didn’t make the most of our opportunities,” Veart told reporters in the post-match press conference.
“Their keeper played very well and made some great saves and we were just a little bit sloppy in crucial parts.
“… At times we were just a little bit casual with our passing, our passing was a little bit too slow, and we go behind and the boys respond.
“It’s something we need to be better at and not have to concede goals to get a response and play with a bit more urgency – we need to start with that urgency.
“But we still created enough opportunities to get the goals, we just didn’t take them.”
That lack of urgency enabled Sydney to stay compact and hit effectively on the counter-attack.
Veart admitted the visitors created several problems for his side defensively.
“They caused us a few issues getting in behind us,” he said.
“Defensively we were a little bit all over the place at times, but the boys fought hard and we could’ve got something at the end but that’s football.”
Lachlan Brook enjoyed his best outing in his first start since returning on loan to the Club.
Veart was pleased with his performance and insisted he will only improve.
“He showed his quality at times tonight,” he said.
“Again, he’ll get better especially after tonight, getting that 75 minutes, 80 minutes into him is going to be better for his conditioning and that’s what we have to do is build up is match conditioning.
“He had some great moments tonight, we just need to get him more involved in the game.”
