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| AFC Champions League |
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| Aussie media ga-ga over Adelaide |
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| Adelaide United lost to Melbourne Victory the top spot in the A-League. They play Japan's Gamba Osaka in the AFC Champions League final first leg on November 5. |
KUALA LUMPUR: Australian media doffed their hat Thursday to Adelaide United and their coach Aurelio Vidmar for making the AFC Champions League semi-finals.
Adelaide United beat Japan’s Kashima Antlers 1-0 on a Robbie Cornthwaite goal at the Hindmarsh Stadium on Wednesday for an aggregate 2-1 win which makes them the first Australian team to reach the last four of Asia’s premier club championship since Australia joined the AFC in January 2006.
The Australian heaped praise on Vidmar’s tactics, saying, “Vidmar should take a bow after coming up with the right tactics against one of the heavyweights of Japanse football.”
“Adelaide was given little hope of beating the Antlers, who boast a players budget of $22million compared to United's $1.75m,” continued The Australian.
The daily also pointed out that the Australians had coped successfully with a hectic schedule. “Playing its fourth game in 13 days, Adelaide dug deep to produce one of the finest performances from an Australian club in an international competition.”
Sportal.com, a leading sports website, said the goal-scoring Cornthwaite had redeemed himself after scoring an own goal in the first leg - “Cornthwaite went from zero to hero by scoring the match-winning goal in the 73rd minute.”
The Fox Sports website revealed Vidmar’s inspirational demand ‘Shock Asia’ to his charges. Their report stated: “The Reds boss made his charged-up players focus on a whiteboard and commit to giving Australian football ‘respect’ in Asia.”
It quoted Vidmar as saying: “There was a bit of a catch-cry I put on the board - it said 'Let's shock Asia'. I think we have certainly done that.”
According to Fox Sports, Adelaide have already requested the Football Federation Australia to postpone Adelaide's fixtures against Central Coast (Oct 3), Queensland (Oct 17) and Perth Glory (Oct 26) - possibly to the FIFA break in November.
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