Adelaide United will be delighted that they don't have to play the New Zealand Knights any more in the 2006-7 Hyundai A-League competition. Because despite their cellar-dwelling position on the league table, the plucky combination could yet prove to be the deciding factor in whether or not last season's premiership winners even make the play-offs this time round.
The Knights have collected four of their nine points at the expense of John Kosmina's charges this season, the last of those coming in an enthralling 1-1 draw at Hindmarsh Stadium on December 10, a match watched by 11,548 fans who booed the home team off the park at the half-time whistle.
That's because the visitors went to the dressing rooms a goal to the good, and deservedly so. For in the first half, Adelaide were, to be blunt, awful, and the cat calls from the crowd as they trudged at the interval were the least the locals deserved, Romario especially.
The Brazilian's globe-trotting quest to score the fourteen goals he needs to join Pele in having scored one thousand goals in his career has seen him fronting up for United in this and two other games, with one more to come. And while it's been a tremendously successful publicity stunt for both the club and the competition, the player's efforts haven't matched the hype.
Indeed, on the evidence of this display, Romario would struggle to score in a Mardi Gras! Kosmina must have been thinking along those lines also, for the marked improvement in Adelaide's performance once the lumbering forty-year-old was substituted on the hour mark contrasted starkly with a first half which saw the visiting combination emerge as the better-performed combination, by some distance.
The Knights were fully deserving of their point - they must be wishing they could play Adelaide every week, given their displays in all three A-League matches against their South Australian rivals this season.
In the eighth minute, they fired the game's first shot of note, Alen Marcina's glove-warming effort to welcome Daniel Beltrame's return to first team action for United followed soon after by a Jonas Salley effort from distance which careered past the post after the combative midfielder had, not for the last time in the match, caught Carl Veart napping.
In the fourteenth minute, the visitors went closer still. Mark Paston's goal kick was flicked on by Neil Emblen for Marcina, who was proving a real handful for Adelaide's rearguard. He got the better of Kristian Rees on this occasion before lashing a snapshot across the face of goal.
Four minutes later, the Knights scored the goal their efforts fully merited. Emblen was at the heart of a lovely left flank raid, the key aspect of which was a defence-opening pass from Richard Johnson which allowed Chinese recruit Leilei Gao to exploit the wide-open spaces of Hindmarsh Stadium hitherto occupied by the retreating Richie Alagich. The Knights' new recruit raced inside the penalty area before beating Beltrame all ends up at his near post - a fine strike which silenced the locals.
Dean Gordon went close from a Gao corner two minutes later, while only a vital tackle by Matthew Kemp stopped the Chinese newcomer in his tracks in the 23rd minute, as he looked to take up the yoke borne by Marcina in his raid seconds earlier.
Adelaide failed to test Paston inside the first half-hour, and with finishing like that of Alagich in the 24th minute, it was little wonder! Nathan Burns, Romario and Fernando Rech teamed up to set up the fast-arriving Alagich, whose finish was of the high, wide and not very handsome variety.
After Gordon and the impressive Jason Spagnuolo had exchanged shots on goal either side of the half-hour mark, Adelaide's fans were screaming blue murder when referee Angelo Nardi ignored the ball striking the arm of Gao as he ran into the path of a Burns flick.
It would have been harsh on the Knights had a spot-kick been given, but there was no intent in the player's actions, so play continued. This allowed Adelaide to maintain their growing momentum, but their efforts before the break invariably foundered on the visitors' determined defensive efforts, so much so that Paston didn't have a single save of note to make in the opening forty-five minutes, a statistic which speaks volumes for how ineffective the home team were.
That situation continued into the second spell, with the visiting custodian finally forced to earn his keep in the 59th minute, as he grabbed a Spagnuolo header from Veart's quick free-kick. It was the straw which broke the camel's back for Kosmina, who stunned the local faithful by withdrawing the player the majority of them had come to see, and replacing the ineffective Romario with a willing worker in Travis Dodd.
The transformation in the match was astonishing. Suddenly, Adelaide's attacks had pace and purpose, something which the addition of Greg Downs soon after served only to enhance. Before he took his bow, however, United went desperately close to equalising, Spagnuolo's corner being cleared off the line after Burns and Rech looked to utilise Dodd's pace, only for Che Bunce to intervene at the expense of the set-piece.
That incident took place in the 63rd minute. Four minutes on, the Knights had a glorious chance to clinch the points, Johnson's slide-rule through ball leaving Marcina with just Beltrame to beat. The ‘keeper saved superbly with his legs at the feet of the striker, Adelaide immediately clearing their lines and storming downfield.
A mistake by Darren Bazeley seconds later allowed Spagnuolo to work an opening with Burns before the lively midfielder beat the hesitant Paston to the through ball and fired it past the ‘keeper.
Adelaide must have thought it wasn't going to be their day when the ball struck the base of the near post and spun right across the face of goal and out of play by the far post, but within four minutes, those prospects were cast aside thanks to Owens.
Burns' first-time pass from Veart's lay-off split the Knights' defence and let Dodd in on the right. His cross picked out the head of the unmarked Owens, whose bullet-like header flashed past Paston but against the upright. Fortune favoured the substitute however, the ball ricocheting off the back of the unfortunate goalkeeper and into the net behind him for what could yet prove a priceless equaliser for the home team.
That was the signal for a grandstand finish, with Adelaide going hammer and tongs in pursuit of the three points, and the Knights, who had led the game for so long, determined to get something out of a match which their efforts to this point fully merited.
Initially, the home team held sway, the visitors scrambling clear after Spagnuolo had rewarded Matthew Kemp's surging run inside him into the penalty area. Then in the 79th minute, Michael Valkanis picked out Spagnuolo on the left, and his pass allowed Owens to evade the challenge of Bazeley and pick out Rech with his cross. The Brazilian couldn't climb high enough to head the ball down towards the target.
The final ten minutes was thrilling fare, and how both goals survived intact defies belief! Paston made two fine saves in a twenty-second spell to kick things off, initially blocking a piledriver from Rech. Dodd gathered the rebound and picked out Spagnuolo with his low cross, the midfielder's shot being turned round the post by the recovering custodian.
Valkanis was next to spurn the chance to put Adelaide in front, Dodd picking him out with an angled cross to the far post. The defender opted to chest the ball in, rather than head it, and made insufficient contact to direct the ball on target in the 83rd minute.
Four minutes later, Burns contrived to produce the miss of the match, as the home team went all out for the winner. Kemp and Spagnuolo combined on the left, the latter delivering a super cross from the byline to pick out Rech on the far post.
The striker headed the ball down towards Burns, Paston and his team-mates looking on in horror as the youngster found himself three yards out with the goal at his mercy. But somehow he directed his header over the bar - surely the Knights could be assured of at least a point now!
Not yet! For within seconds, Valkanis surged out of defence before switching play to Spagnuolo once more. Owens received his pass, then checked and turned before letting fly with a shot which was arrowing towards the top far corner of the net until Paston produced an exquisite fingertip save at full stretch to turn the ball over the bar.
The Knights cleared the resulting corner and set sail for the Adelaide goal on the counter-attack, led by substitute Michael White. With virtually the last kick of the game, he let fly with a twenty-five yarder which Beltrame turned round the post to ensure parity at the end of another captivating encounter between these trans-tasman rivals.