Adelaide 4 - 1 Hunns (393555133)

The crowd of 3257 turning up at East Adelaide Owls Arena today were greeted with some nasty showers of rain. Tommy Lundhbratt was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Shlomo Rollaz du Rosey and Olli-Pekka Masalin. Adelaide had chosen a strategic 3-5-2 formation. The following players had been chosen: Grover - Egan, Saura, Pacheco - Fleetwood-Smith, Ascanio, Wells, Raj, Raj - Rasmussen, Bundy.

Hunns decided to use a 3-5-2 set up. They fielded: Meksz - Kendra, Gaborin, Eufrate - Dreyer, Ockenhouse, Abu-Abdel, McHugh, Marques - Wadenkrampf, Láng.

Counter-attacking seemed to be the preferred strategy of Adelaide. Hunns displayed their ability to play creatively. D. Ockenhouse, who often relies on his speed, had a rotten day on the drenched grass. After several obvious shirt pulling incidents, O. Fleetwood-Smith got himself booked. The manager of Adelaide was not happy. 0 - 0 was the score after the first half. Adelaide had most of the ball, with 55 percent of possession.

Almost all the way down to the corner flag, Adelaide's O. Fleetwood-Smith somehow managed to get a perfect pass into the middle, impossible to miss for B. Bundy, who struck for 1 - 0. With 52 minutes played, the Hunns coach decided a substitution may help turn the game around. M. Blane came on, R. Kendra had to leave the fray. Hunns needed a fresh pair of legs on the field, and after 57 minutes B. Abu-Abdel made way for I. Wahlgren. Although the whole team were struggling to impress, Hunns's Z. Meksz was singled out as being the problem as he was called off the pitch after 61 minutes. A. Llorente was given a chance to change things around. The visitors' I. Dreyer was alert after a cross coming in from the left, levelling the score at 1 - 1 after 80 minutes. Adelaide broke through on the left 82 minutes into the game, with E. Rasmussen firing in from an acute angle to give the home side a 2 - 1 lead. Adelaide solidified their lead at the 83 minute mark, as S. Raj dribbled the ball through the opposing central defence and scored to make it 3 - 1. E. Rasmussen of Adelaide received a yellow card after 85 minutes for unsportsmanlike behaviour. The head of A. Ascanio connected with a corner kick after 86 minutes, and the ball ended up with M. Saura of Adelaide who blasted the ball into the net, making the score 4 - 1. At this point, it was obvious that the players of Adelaide lowered the tempo and became more defensively oriented. With 87 minutes played, E. Rasmussen could have brought this one home for Adelaide as he charged up on the left, but his hooked ball went just a bit too high. Adelaide claimed to have seen most of the ball, and the statistics agreed with them - possession being 60 percent.

Adelaide's best player was E. Rasmussen. However, T. Egan made a disastrous appearance. Hunns's top performer was clearly L. Láng. M. Blane was a disappointment, however. The match ends 4 - 1.