Adelaide United has beaten Melbourne City in a pre-season friendly at Casey Fields on Friday afternoon.
In a match that was structured into three 45 minute segments, goals from Lachlan Barr, Zach Clough, and George Blackwood in the first 90 minutes, followed by goals by Luka Jovanović and Harry Van der Saag in the final 45 minutes, rounded off a solid performance from Carl Veart’s Reds.
“It was important to get more minutes into the full squad and so the benefit of having an extra 45 minutes was that we didn’t have to rotate as many players during the standard 90,” Veart said.
“Most of the players were able to get 90 minutes in and some players played 45 – that’s valuable ahead of the Wellington game next week.
“Our performance was another improvement from the previous games and I’m happy with the way that we played and the way that we made it difficult for City to play because we know how much quality they have in their team.
“It’s still too early to tell (how we’ll fair this season) because it is a pre-season game but it’s good to develop that form and that understanding as as a team.
“Some of the things that we’ve been working on in the pre-season were clearly evident in today’s performance and that’s very promising.
“The last 45 minutes was a good option to have and it was good for Juande, Harry (Van der Saag), and James (Delianov) to get some more minutes.
“And then we had a lot of younger boys playing as well, so we’ve given them exposure to play some A-League opposition.”
Match details:
Pre-Season Friendly — Friday, 30 September 2022
Casey Fields
90 minutes
Melbourne City 0
Adelaide United 3 (Barr 12’, Clough 37’, Blackwood 76’)
45 minutes
Melbourne City 1 (Caputo 28′)
Adelaide United 2 (Jovanović 32’, Van der Saag 43’)
