Adelaide United and Sydney FC played out a tense 1-1 A-League Mens draw in front of packed Coopers Stadium on Friday.
A sell-out crowd turned up to see the Reds take the lead almost immediately after half time before the visitors managed an equaliser in the final 10 minutes.
The result cut the second-placed Reds’ lead over third-placed Central Coast Mariners to four points after the latter defeated Western United 3-0 earlier in the day.
United had a great chance as early as the third minute when Craig Goodwin’s near post corner was met by Ben Warland, whose powerful glancing header forced an impressive reflex save from Andrew Redmayne.
On 16 minutes United had another glorious opportunity when Zach Clough squared a ball across the face of goal which Goodwin drove low and hard past Redmayne but it was saved off the line by Jack Rodwell.
It was United who eventually opened the scoring and it came three minutes into the second half. Jay Barnett released Clough who threaded a pass through Sydney’s defence for Javi López. The Spaniard’s cut back deflected into the path of Goodwin, who fired first time towards the far post which Rodwell was guarding. The shot had too much power and cannoned off the defender’s legs and into the net.
On 73 minutes, Max Burgess split Adelaide’s defence to find substitute Adam Le Fondre who raced onto the pass – his deflected effort beating Joe Gauci.
