Reds keep heat on leaders Auckland after Veart pep talk

Yahoo

07-02-2025

Adelaide United coach Carl Veart has admitted he didn't even discuss the first half during his half-time address in the Reds' 1-0 A-League Men's win over Melbourne City.
Such was the dismal performance in the opening 45 minutes on Friday, Veart said he told his troops to wipe it from their memory and turn their attention to the second half.
His demand worked wonders as the the Reds upped their game to earn the win that keeps them hot on the heels of league leaders Auckland, just two points behind.
One of the finest headers you'll see in the Isuzu UTE A-League 😮‍💨👌@AdelaideUnited's Archie Goodwin moves up to second on the Golden Boot standings with this thumping header!There's no stopping him now 😏📺 Watch #ADLvMCY live NOW and exclusive on Paramount+ and 10 Play. pic.twitter.com/yBEkAYHE4b
— Isuzu UTE A-League (@aleaguemen) February 7, 2025
City had dominated from the kickoff, applying an intense and high press, and aided by strong winds which saw the Reds struggle to play with any fluidity.
However, after the restart and the introduction of Yaya Dukuly at the break, United looked a completely different outfit and went on to break the deadlock on 52 minutes.
Archie Goodwin's glancing header from a Zach Clough corner proved enough to secure all three points for the Reds.
"I said to the group at half-time, 'that was 45 minutes that we just forget about'," Veart explained.
"There's no point discussing any tactical or anything like that, we just completely forget about it and just focus on what we need to do in the second half.
"We knew that we were going to have the wind behind us and we knew that if they kept their line high, that we'd be able to get in behind, use our speed to get in behind a little bit more and play a little bit more direct.
"The boys did that well and we got a little bit of control of the game and then our passing improved and everything improved from there."
Veart acknowledged the gusty winds did play a part in United's poor first half, but felt the Reds should have managed it better.
There were numerous errant passes and elementary errors, but Veart applauded Adelaide's character in turning it around after the break.
"When you make those couple of mistakes early in the game, you put a little bit of pressure on yourself and we just couldn't get out of our half," said Veart.
"But we showed good resilience, we defended well, we kept them out of our box so it was pleasing in that aspect."
The loss was City's third consecutive defeat following a 3-0 loss to Auckland FC a fortnight ago and a 1-0 loss to Macarthur last week.
Coach Aurelio Vidmar said he is not concerned, confident City's performances have demonstrated enough to show they can arrest the current run of results.
"No, if you look at the results you can say we've lost three in a row, but last week had a good performance against Macarthur and didn't deserve to lose that; a draw was probably a fair result," he said.
"And tonight, it could've gone either way. We're doing more than enough like tonight to get ourselves ahead and give us the best opportunity to win the game.
"But we're just not doing enough in the front third."