It was no skin off Adelaide's nose. But a huge morale boost for Sydney. And their fans.
A wonderful strike by Alvin Ceccoli in the 71st minute blew away the cloud of doubt that had been obscuring Sydney's sky blue shirts since they returned from the World Club Championships in Japan five weeks earlier.
The players could believe in themselves and every one of the Sydney fans in the record crowd at Sydney Football Stadium could go home believing in their team. Believing that, when Sydney meets Adelaide again and again and possibly again in the next four weeks, Sydney FC has the goods.
Adelaide, of course, had little to lose but some psychological edge. They returned home thinking positively about the lessons that will make them stronger when they face Sydney on South Australian soil in the first leg of the major semi final on February 12.
Light rain fell throughout the match but barely affected play and certainly did not dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd.
Shengqing Qu, one of Adelaide's best, made his mark in the second minute, with a good run, cutting in from left midfield before being pulled down at the edge of the Sydney penalty area.
Qu and Ross Aloisi stood over the ball but Qu struck the free kick just over the crossbar. Sydney goalkeeper Clint Bolton had it covered.
Adam van Dommele had a throw from the left sideline into the Sydney penalty area and Mark Milligan headed clear. Van Dommele then lost a heading duel with Alvin Ceccoli.
Adelaide shot wide. No real danger for Sydney.
David Carney and Steve Corica combined on the right to get a cross to Ruben Zadkovich on the left. There were several Sydney players in the box but one was penalised.
Van Dommele got the better of Carney, sent on his way by Dwight Yorke as Sydney countered following an Adelaide attack — thanks to a good long ball by Lucas Pantelis.
Then Pantelis was at the opposite side and end of the pitch, in space on the left of Sydney's penalty area. His wayward cross sailed over the goal.
Carney sent a good cross in for Saso Petrovski but, as with many similar occasions to come, the taller Angelo Costanzo and Michael Valkanis kept the ball well away from the Sydney striker's head.
After 11 minutes Adelaide seemed to be having slightly the better of the game.
Fernando Rech hit a long switch to Travis Dodd and Bolton just managed to tip it away for Ceccoli who was pressured all the way up the pitch by the pesky Dodd.
Pantelis, again in space on the left, beat Milligan but Mark Rudan cleared.
In the 15th minute Yorke — having one of his more effective games — made his second run from midfield and the crowd cheered in anticipation. Yorke passed perfectly, cutting out a defender and setting Petrovski free on goal from the top left corner of the box. Petrovski shot low and Daniel Beltrame got down well to save.
Matthew Bingley made a good block on Rech when Adelaide countered after Sydney failed to shoot from the edge of the Adelaide box, thanks to indecision on the part of Corica and a wrong-footed Petrovski.
In the 19th minute Sydney played some sweet football, culminating in a good ball in from the left, Yorke cracking a shot that was blocked on the edge of the area, and Zadkovich pushing the ball just wide of the right post.
Jacob Timpano executed a great sliding tackle and Yorke was fouled. Then Timpano did a neat little juggle before sending Carney away. Carney was stopped by van Dommele.
In the 24th minute Rudan headed over from a Yorke corner.
Corica did a lovely turn and headed to the Adelaide penalty area but missed a great run by Yorke. Adelaide cleared as far as Ceccoli who hit a sizzler (calibrating for later in the match).
Sydney came again with Carney chipping in from the left. Beltrame touched over and Sydney had another corner. Yorke hit it long and three Sydney heads made contact with the ball before Beltrame gained control.
Carl Veart clobbered Petrovski — a good sign Petrovski was doing something useful — as Petrovski was working some productive one-twos with Yorke.
But Petrovksi was soon again failing to consummate his promise: at the end of another good ball from Yorke to the left side of the Adelaide penalty area, but taking the ball too far, too close to the Adelaide defenders before he could get a shot off.
By the half hour Sydney were dominating.
Carney chipped over for Yorke who at first hesitated (thought he was offside), but seemed to be in the clear so went for the ball and fell over Beltrame. A penalty seemed in the offing, but the linesman's flag had eventually gone up for the offside.
In the 33rd minute Rudan copped a yellow card and 25,000 people including Sydney coach Pierre Littbarski seemed ready to strip referee Mark Shield of his FIFA credentials.
Ceccoli made a great tackle on Pantelis who was on the end of a good ball to the edge of the Sydney penalty area.
Aloisi hit a good free kick for Adelaide which Bolton did well to get his hands on before two Adelaide players had a chance.
Adelaide were otherwise struggling to put passes together.
Carney shared the ball with Yorke before Zadkovich whipped in a snappy cross. Costanzo again cut out any chance for Petrovski.
Carney got around van Dommele and his cross won a corner which was headed away by Rech.
Qu got a yellow card for expressing his disappointment with Mr Shield's judgment.
With a few minutes to go I left the notebook in the hands of cub reporter Alex and went off foraging (a necessity with so many people and so few queues). Six from the front of the line for chips and whatever else they had hot and ready I heard a cheer of excitement and turned to see the back row groan and curse a Sydney player (probably Petrovski, I thought to myself). Three from the front I heard a cheer of excitement and turned to see the back row groan and curse. At the front of the queue I learned they had a new menu item: cevapi rolls (ah, happy reminisces of Sydney United Sports Centre!). But this nostalgia for the days when a national league football fan could access tasty Balkan cuisine was broken by a cheer of excitement. I turned to see the back row stand, groan and curse.
Before performing my other half-time queuing duties I rushed back to read of the excitement contained in the cub reporter's notes: "Petrovksi had a shot. Missed. Two minutes extra. Half time."
The disappointment of finding such a brief summary was only surpassed by discovering what had become of my cevapi roll. The contents were swimming in a pool of lettucy glug at the bottom of the paper bag. Three little cevapi. Sludgy tomato slices. I ate it all as best I could. But the Lebanese bread was quite dry and bland bereft of its contents.
So, with wee pieces of lettuce stuck to everything, I drew a line under Alex's restrained effort and prepared to record for you how: If Corica had slightly better reflexes he could have pounced on the ball Beltrame dropped for him and put Sydney in the lead.
Corica walked away with his head in his hands, but two minutes later his lapse didn't matter.
Petrovski flicked the ball to Zadkovich on the edge of the Adelaide penalty area. Zadkovich looked to have nowhere to go but played forward in any case. A surprised Aloisi handballed and Sydney were awarded a penalty. Which Yorke … actually converted. With a clever chip.
Sydney, tails up, came again. Petrovski fired a shot at Beltrame.
The crowd was on fire … er … eager, ardent, zealous. But … I since heard French World Cup Winning coach Aime Jacquet say a team was most vulnerable when it was happy, and here was proof.
In the 50th minute Aloisi made a good run to the Sydney penalty area, pushed left (much in the same way Yorke had done for Petrovski) for Qu to shoot. A good chance and a well-taken goal. I suspect this was Milligan's fault (talented though he is). For the second time in two weeks watching someone else's business instead of concentrating on his own marking duties.
Sydney responded by hitting a series of low, long balls that Adelaide cut out with ease.
Zadkovich showed a bit of flair rounding Richie Alagich, but Alagich didn't surrender and won the ball.
Moments later Alagich had an off-balance shot to nowhere.
Rech was strong beating Carney and hitting the ball up the left sideline.
Petrovski went to the Adelaide goal line and pulled the ball back too far for Yorke to get decent contact with his head. The ball went left of target.
Beltrame went down with cramp and the Sydney players gathered around Littbarski to hear what they were doing wrong.
The benefits of the pep talk were not immediately obvious. Dodd fired in a shot from a fine angle and was blocked by Bolton's feet.
Substitute Louis Brain (on for Pantelis) headed over the bar from a chip after Sydney failed to clear properly.
Carney came across field and got the ball to Zadkovich who this time beat Alagich with ease and crossed. Beltrame dived to catch it.
Petrovski got in a cross, past Costanzo in the left corner, Adelaide cleared and the ball went out.
Carney, outside the Adelaide penalty area, was whacked down, Aloisi copped a yellow card and I cursed that we weren't allowed to see replays of such occurrences.
Curses, fouls and sticky lettuce leaves were soon forgotten, however. Ceccoli hit a screamer from 22 metres. What a goal! And suddenly Beltrame had cramp again.
My best off-field A-League moment of the year came three minutes later, watching the pulsating Cove chanting "Sydney, Sydney", as the big screen above them zoomed in on Ceccoli.
With over 15 minutes to go Zadkovich was replaced by the more defensive Terry McFlynn.
Rudan was too cautious putting an Adelaide cross over the line for an Adelaide corner. Bolton came off his line and up and caught dramatically ("He did that thing where he hangs in the air," observed the cub reporter) before sending Carney down the right to win Sydney a corner.
Yorke played the ball back long toward Carney but gave it away and Adelaide broke down the length of the field.
Milligan missed a tackle but Adelaide stuffed the cross.
Then Milligan got away and found Yorke, Corica and McFlynn in the middle. Sydney looked to have a good opportunity going forward but when McFlynn received the ball Corica hung back and Sydney had no more options.
Qu hit a rubbish corner for Adelaide that was cleared easily.
Robert Cornthwaite, on for Dodd, hit a penetrating long ball and Adelaide won a free kick 25 metres from goal. Adelaide struggled to do anything with it but Rech eventually got onto a low cross from the left and Sydney were lucky to escape.
Sydney countered but Carney overshot from distance.
A good tackle from Bingley sent Carney away again and Rudan made a saving tackle chasing back but Adelaide won a corner.
Bolton took the ball off the head of Cornthwaite and pushed it just wide of goal. Adelaide had a corner, again wasted by Qu.
Rudan displayed some cool class as Adelaide swarmed the Sydney penalty area and a pitch invader provided a minute's distraction.
Bolton collected a soft header after Adelaide played into the Sydney penalty area again, and McFlynn made a great tackle and almost sent Yorke on his way. But the crowd, baying for the final whistle, had its wishes fulfilled.
Second best off field moment: the reception the Sydney players received as they walked around the pitch acknowledging their supporters.
Littbarski admitted his team had put in an outstanding performance in both halves; a lot of ball possession, lot of movement, good combinations, and absolutely fantastic goals.
He said it was very sweet beating Adelaide and gave Sydney a lot of self confidence for the game next Sunday in Adelaide. He said the situation was now open.
He thanked his players for giving everyone a beautiful evening.
Littbarski said Yorke's performance was fantastic in the midfield, but all the other players did their part as well. Everyone was working for each other. "It is great to see these things in Australia."
He said Adelaide didn't look that good to him today. "They looked better when we played them in the second leg at home. But here they had a little more respect and we did very well and I was sure we would score at least one in the second half."
Ceccoli said the team wasn't quite where they wanted to be but they had turned a corner. "We are not far off."
He wasn't worried about playing at Hindmarsh Stadium: "Our biggest problem throughout this season has been ourselves. We have not been up to it for whatever reason."
While goals were scored in the second half, he thought Sydney played well and created good opportunities in the first half.
Littbarski said if everyone was fit he'd "maybe" play the next game with the same team and tactics, with Corica up the front, in behind Petrovski.
Adelaide's John Kosmina said he thought his team started the game positively, "but then we dug a little bit of a hole for ourselves; we got a bit too cute. We had a real game tonight. We hadn't had a real game for the last couple of weeks."
He said it was a game that could have gone either way and a draw would have been a fair result, "when you looked at Sydney scoring from two set pieces".
He said he was especially happy with the way his players lifted after Sydney scored their second goal: "A great free kick, well struck, unstoppable."
He said, "We played well enough to get a result out of it but we let Sydney back into the game. We weren't assertive enough for long periods like we have been in the past."