Adelaide City was too experienced for a young Adelaide United side, winning 6-0 in Round 7 of the PlayStation 4 National Premier Leagues South Adelaide at Adelaide City Park last Saturday.

The standout for City was Nikola Mileusnic with three goals - Nicholas Bucco, Anthony Costa and Mamadi Kamara added to the score as well.

Adelaide United started off on the front foot in the early stages, pressing high, and predominantly attacking via the flanks with Mark Ochieng and Alec Maiolo the main protagonists.

However, the majority of United’s attacks didn’t penetrate the opposition’s 18-yard box with City’s defence continually holding its shape and line.

City absorbed the early pressure and soon gained control after 10 minutes, keeping possession and setting the pace of the game.

The home side took the lead after 13 minutes; Kamara made a quick dash down the right wing crossing the ball into the path of Bucco, who slotted the ball into the goal first time from six yards out.

City doubled their lead six minutes later with Kamara involved again; the winger squared the ball to Mileusnic, who made his way past one defender to score a gorgeous goal from the edge of the box.

The first half ended 2-0 with the home side well in control of the match, having stifled Adelaide United’s midfield and attack.

City’s domination continued when play resumed with City adding a third in the 59th minute, when Costa finished off a Bucco cross from close range.

United capitulated; with their short pass, high press game not working, the young reds resorted more and more to long range passes, which the forwards could not work with.

City punished United’s ineffectiveness in the last ten minutes with three successive goals.

The first of the three successive goals arrived on the 82nd minute mark with Mileusnic jumping on a rebounded Kamara effort.

It was Kamara’s turn two minutes later with the winger tapping in a Bucco cross at the right hand post with Mileusnic completing his hat-trick in the 87th minute, after dispossessing a United player in the midfield, making his way to the opposition’s goal and beating United goalkeeper Daniel Margush in style.

City’s Thomas Love was not just happy with the team’s result, but also with its performance.

“On the whole we played extremely well, just the team in general,” Love said.

“Everyone all over the park, from the back to the front, everyone played extremely well; everyone did their jobs and obviously that came out in the result winning 6-0.”

The team stuck to its strengths, instead of adjusting its usual game plan, said Love.

“Our main focus was to continue the way we’ve been playing,” Love said.

“We have the quality in our team to actually play the way we want to play and be able to beat these teams.”

On the other hand, Adelaide United’s Jordan O’Doherty was disappointed with the result and performance.

“It is very disappointing to lose any game and lose by such a large deficit is even more disappointing,” O’Doherty said.

“We weren’t happy with the way we performed collectively as a group either.

“I don’t think we worked hard enough and we didn’t take the game to them as much as we should’ve or we would’ve liked to.”

However, O’Doherty believes that the learnt a valuable lesson from this resounding loss.

“The major lesson, really, is that the good teams are going to punish us for our mistakes and that hasn’t happened to us yet this season,” he said.

“Teams like Adelaide City have the quality to punish our mistakes and they will take their chances.
“So the basic lesson learnt is: We take our chances and make sure we don’t give teams the opportunity to have more chances than us because we will get punished like we did.”

In Round 8, United will host Adelaide Comets, whilst City will travel to Marden to take on Adelaide Blue Eagles.

Written By Christopher Munker