Jacob Stevens 
Luka Jovanovic celebrates his goal against the Western Sydney Wanderers. Photo: Joshua Davis/Round Ball Australia
Adelaide United again came out the blocks firing on all cylinders, with a tremendous first half that saw them take a two goal lead, but had to dig deep in the second to avoid another 4-4 draw with Western Sydney.
Luka Jovanovic opened the scoring early for the Reds, with a tap in courtesy of a blocked shot from Ethan Alagich.
It was a second goal in as many games for the young striker, with Veart quick to praise the environment the club has created to enable their youngsters to play so well.
“With all our young boys, it’s just about them having that belief and playing without fear and learning as they go along,” Veart said.
“We encourage all of our young players to be fearless and to attack and take the game on.
“[Luka Jovanovic’s] work in the box is very good. He always finds space and time to get shots.
“It’s just he’s developing his other strengths in build up play, and against some big, strong boys in the back tonight I think he did quite well with that.”
Adelaide did not look back from there as a beautiful ball from out wide by Zach Clough 17 minutes later caused confusion in the box, with Tristan Vidackovic making a meal of the delivery and leaving the ball to bounce rather unceremoniously off of Austin Ayoubi’s shin and into the net.
Adelaide’s defence was soon called into question though, as Jack Clisby delivered a deep cross that was not dealt with by the defence, and Ryan Kitto left Nicolas Milanovic unmarked at the far post to tuck away the chance nicely.
This was yet another goal conceded by this Adelaide side that came from dealing poorly with more direct balls being played in behind, and would not be the only example in this match.
Not long after, though, Dylan Pierias gave Adelaide some necessary breathing room with an absolute rocket volley from outside the box in the 27th minute.
Adelaide head coach Carl Veart believes that Pierias has always had this quality, but that being able to play in such an attacking-focused side has brought the best out of him.
“There’s no secret in the way that we play – we play with that right back very high and they cause a lot of threat because of that explosive speed,” Veart said.
“It suits him playing that way. And that’s what we try to do: we try to find a system that suits our players and that can bring the best out of our players.
“I think Dylan [Pierias] has shown tonight that this is maybe the best for him.
“He’s always been a very responsible player, very dedicated.
“And sometimes it takes that little bit of time for young players to develop,”
However, as the second half started, anyone who thought that Adelaide had the game under wraps was soon to be proven wrong.
It was Pierias’ attacking ventures which left far too much space out wide for Zac Sapsford, who played a beautiful grounded cross to a wide open Bozhidar Kraev.
Pierias looked to have been the Reds’ hero again with a well taken finish inside the box on the end of another splendid line-splitting pass by Clough, but old habits die hard and Adelaide’s defence again failed to keep the Wanderers out.
Kitto was again a key contributor – watching Sapsford run past him without so much as a thought to even track the Wanderers striker.
A great save by James Delianov denied Sapsford, and Aydan Hammond’s return was blasted into the crossbar.
With defenders, attackers and the goalkeeper all scrambling, Brandon Borrello rose higher than Delianov to win the aerial duel, doing just enough to get the ball over the line with a dinked header.
The Reds managed to hold on to their one goal lead for the final 15 minutes, but Veart admits the win was probably more difficult than it needed to be.
“We don’t like to make things easy for ourselves,” he said.
“In the first half I thought we were very good, we had good control.
“Second half – credit to the Wanderers. They really upped their intensity, put us under a lot of pressure and we sort of struggled a little bit with that and didn’t have as much control as we needed to have in that second half.”
Those last 15 minutes did show a side to this Adelaide team that we have not yet seen. It was resolute, strong defending despite the Wanderers having the most of the ball.
It was a tight unit, not allowing many chances for the Wanderers to shoot, and Veart praised the collective defensive attitude as a key reason his side came away with the points.
“The resilience they showed to dig in, because the Wanderers came really hard late in the game; I’m very proud of them and they should be proud of themselves as well,” Veart said.
“They’ll take a lot from that performance tonight. It’s early in the season but it’s a very good platform that we’ve got after two games to build on.”