Jacob Stevens 
Adelaide United coach Carl Veart. Photo: Joshua Davis/Round Ball Australia
Carl Veart’s Adelaide United continued their unbeaten start to the season with a 2-1 victory over Western United in a close run affair at Coopers Stadium.
The Reds have been the pre-eminent fast starters this season in the A-League Men, but found themselves on the back foot early after Kane Vidmar was found unmarked at the far post from a set piece, his pass-cum-shot squeezing through a mess of legs to find the back of the net.
Adelaide managed to restore parity in the 32nd minute, with a strange scramble for the ball ending with Dylan Leonard deflecting what was destined to be a corner back into his own net.
Veart says that the way his side approached that first half didn’t allow for much success going forwards, and that there’s plenty to take away from it.
“It’s something we always talk about, our ball speed,” Veart said.
“And tonight, Western’s block that they had, we were still trying to play through it and there just wasn’t enough space in there and we just didn’t move the ball quick enough to go either over the top of their block or around it.
“We made those changes in the second half and that’s why we got a little bit more space because we then started to stretch them.
“It’s a good learning experience for the playing group. We’ll have a really good look at the video on this and really go into great detail with the playing group so that we can be better.”
Those second half changes were particularly noticeable when the triple substitution of Ben Folami, Jonny Yull and Archie Goodwin emerged just after the hour mark.
In fact, it was Folami and Yull who were involved in creating Adelaide’s winner, Folami finding space out wide to work the ball to Yull in the box, who cleverly turned and played in Zach Clough to finish the beautiful, flowing move.
Veart was pleased with his impact subs, and praised their skill sets in being able to help control these sorts of games.
“In the second half the space started to open up a little more so bringing on Jonny [Yull] and Ben [Folami], who were involved in that second goal, they’re a little bit more direct and good at maintaining possession,” he said.
“It was good. That’s what you want from your subs when they come on: you want them to have an impact, and I think they all did tonight.
“It just shows the desire in the group this year. You can see it’s a very strong group that want to achieve something, and tonight I think you saw that.”
This match also marked Bart Vriends’ first full 11 vs 11 minutes since arriving in Australia, but Veart was nevertheless impressed with what the Dutch veteran offered.
“It took him 10 or 15 minutes to sort of get used to the speed in the game, but after that he was very solid defensively, very solid,” Veart said.
“And that’s why we brought him into the team: for that, and his leadership, and you could see that in the second half.”
Adelaide United will return to A-League action in two weeks at Unite Round, where they will face the Brisbane Roar – a team featuring many former Reds players.