Source: Radio New Zealand
Hiroki Sakai of Auckland FC and Anselmo de Moraes of Adelaide United compete for the ball. www.photosport.nz
Adelaide United has a few things Auckland FC don’t have but would like, including an A-League championship and a football-first stadium.
Both of those things will be front of mind when Auckland travel to Coopers Stadium for the second leg of the A-League semifinals on Friday.
Unable to get an advantage over Adelaide in the first leg at home in Penrose, with a 1-1 draw on Saturday, Auckland now must win at the home of football in South Australia to progress to the A-League grand final for the first time.
“It’s going to be hostile, but who cares?,” Auckland coach Steve Corica said of the 16,500 capacity Coopers Stadium that has football as the main tenant.
“The players want to play in front of good crowds, that’s a good crowd. It’s a good field.
“We’ve been there before, we’ve played there, we’ve done well there. We haven’t beaten them there, but they haven’t beaten us either.”
Auckland’s leading goal scorer, Sam Cosgrove, was not intimidated by what is known to be one of the most consistent supporters groups in the competition.
“It’s going to be a rife atmosphere, it’s going to be a good crowd, but that can spur us on just as much.
“We’ve been arguably better away from home, so we’ve got loads of confidence going into next week and we think we can beat [them].”
Saturday’s draw was the fifth time Auckland had ended with a stalemate at home, at the stadium they share with the Warriors NRL side.
On the road, Auckland have won three times as often as they lost this season.
Two sides of a draw
Adelaide United coach Airton Androli. www.photosport.nz
Adelaide United coach Airton Androli did not classify a draw as a successful result from the trip to Auckland and he did not believe Adelaide would be favourites now that the deciding match would be played in front of a sell-out home crowd at Coopers Stadium.
His side are unbeaten in 11 consecutive A-League games and he has plans on extending that out to 13 games with Adelaide’s first Championship title win in a decade.
“Our main intention was coming here and win the game, and that’s what we wanted to do,” he said straight after Saturday’s match.
“But obviously, a draw is not a bad result. But nothing is decided.
“The only thing that we’re really happy about now is that we know that the game is going to be decided next week. We’re playing at home in front of our supporters, and that’s not an easy place to come to.
“Nothing falls onto your lap. We need to work hard because we’re close to where we want to be, but we’re not there yet.
Louis Verstraete, left, of Auckland FC, kicks the ball under the challenge of Ethan Alagich in the A-League first semifinal leg at Mount Smart Stadium. Photosport
Adelaide were on a different trajectory to Auckland over the second half of the A-League season. While Auckland were stumbling in January, Adelaide were setting a foundation that would see them finish second after the regular season.
Momentum was on Adelaide’s side heading into finals but Androli did not see that as an advantage.
“I don’t believe in favourites, I don’t believe in underdogs. It’s an equal game of football.
“We’re just going to do what we do, go with the belief that we have, the confidence that we’ve been building in order to win the game [on Friday].
Corica was upbeat with the draw in what was likely the team’s last home game of the season.
“Pretty positive result for us in the end, I think,” Corica said.
“We slipped up once, they scored. We just can’t afford to do that in the next leg.
“Other than that, I thought the boys played really well.
“We’ve got a good away record, I’m looking forward to it.”
Corica tried to point to the positives, on numerous occasions, as he summed up the first leg.
He may have felt he had some convincing to do when he told the journalists they were “a little bit negative, I think you need to be a little bit more positive”.
Corica did admit the players “lost maybe a little bit of concentration” when two Auckland players went down with injures that required them to leave the field within the first 10 minutes of the second half and there was a delay in play.
“It’s just the way it is sometimes with football, you’ve got to deal with these moments in games.
“Like I said, they had their one opportunity, they scored from it. I think we had 18 shots to their 12, it was very positive from our players.
“It’s about just trying to remain focused, concentrate. We know they’re good with the ball, but we showed today that we can defend well against them.
“We’ve done it before in the past and we’ll do it again on Friday.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand