Marco Kurz admits he was extremely impressed with Adelaide United’s complete performance in their FFA Cup 2018 Round of 32 clash on Wednesday night.
The Reds produced a dominant 3-0 win over Central Coast Mariners at Marden Sports Complex to progress to the last 16.
Jordan Elsey and a stunning overhead kick from new recruit Mirko Boland saw the hosts race to a 2-0 lead before Craig Goodwin put the tie to bed with a second-half free-kick.
Kurz was particularly pleased with how his team controlled the tempo of the match and could not fault his players for their commitment and worth ethic.
“We played a very good game,” Kurz said following the game.
“We had for the whole ninety minutes the ball control and we created a lot of chances.
“I’m very happy that we won and that we reached the next round.
“Also the new players did well but not only the new ones but I think the whole team had a high focus and played very concentrated and it was a good game from us.”
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The result sees Adelaide maintain their record of never losing on home soil in the history of the FFA Cup – triumphant in all eight matches.
Kurz also reserved praise for German midfielder, Boland, who doubled the Reds’ advantage in magnificent fashion and for making a rather seamless transition into the starting 11.
It was Boland’s competitive debut for the Club after featuring in a pre-season friendly match last week.
The Eintracht Braunschweig legend showed his poise going forward and was composed in possession, helping ignite Adelaide’s attacking play against the Mariners.
“Firstly, the whole team played very, very good,” he admitted.
“Not only one (player) but I think for Mirko (Boland) it was very difficult, he came ten days ago and trained with the team in a completely new system, completely new line-up and tactical system and he did well.
“And I’m looking forward to the next steps with Mirko.”
Despite the convincing display from Adelaide, Kurz stated there was still plenty of areas to work on once he closely analyses the game footage.
“I think I’m sure if I watch the game tonight I’ll find a lot of things we can do in the next week,” he said.
“I think we’re very early in the pre-season and we’ve enough work to do and now we’ll go to the next step and I don’t know it’s up to the draw when the next round is and we’ve a lot of work to do.”
