Round 18 of the RAA NPL SA season saw Adelaide United visit Jack Smith Park to take on the ever-improving West Torrens Birkalla.
Unsettled before the whistle
While being the youth team of an A-League club can have its benefits, it also comes with drawbacks. With A-League pre-season underway for Adelaide United and midweek games taking place, there is a ripple effect on the club’s NPL side.
Managing minutes for players has meant that some have so far exclusively featured in the midweek games, while others are pulling double shifts. Team selection, compounded by injuries to regulars such as Joey Garuccio and Malual Nichola, left the Young Reds shorthanded in personnel on Friday night against Birkalla.
Frank Busasa deputised at left back, while a double pivot was employed in the centre of the park, with Giorgio Parhas and Luka Blazevic earning rare starts in the senior team. In the forward line, the usual lone striker, Brody Burkitt, was joined by Mohammed Hassan. Those inclusions also meant that the Young Reds were light on experience on the bench.
Caption: Adelaide United fielded an inexperienced side in Round 18 (Image: Pagonis Photography)
Gone in 20 minutes
The previous encounter between these two sides saw Adelaide United record their biggest win of the season. Throughout that match, the Young Reds used their opponent’s eager press to hurt them on the counterattack; the rematch could not have gone any differently.
Stav Gelekis’ side took advantage of the unsettled nature of the young Adelaide United side and suffocated them with their pressing from the start. A positive start by the hosts saw morale increase even further when a superb Dylan Klaassen-Thomas disarmed the Young Reds defence, before finding Tyreece Conway, who finished past the oncoming Max Vartuli in the seventh minute to open the scoring.
Birkalla’s confidence only intensified their fervent pressing, leading to a turnover and a saved George Blackwood shot, before Allan Welsh’s rebound doubled his side’s lead just three minutes later. It already seemed like a long way back for the abject Young Reds from there, but yet another press-induced turnover saw Blackwood lay the ball off the Klaassen-Thomas, who added a goal to his man of the match performance, scoring Birkalla’s third before a third of the game had even been contested.
Caption: Allan Welsh celebrates his goal against Adelaide United (Image: Pagonis Photography)
Outsized, outmatched, and outplayed
While the nature of a youth team in a men’s competition means that the concept of boys against men is a weekly occurrence, sometimes it is also reflected in how games play out. West Torrens Birkall ensured that was the case on Friday night against the depleted Young Reds.
Reece Jurjevic and Adam Le Cornu at the heart of the Birks defence ensured that Brody Burkit and Mohamed Hassan could not capitalise on the limited service their teammates provided. Meanwhile, in the midfield, Allan Welsh and Dylan Klaassen-Thomas dominated physically over their younger adversaries.
This advantage was clearly identified by the hosts, who exploited that edge, with virtually every goal kick by Nicholas Harpas backing his teammates to win their aerial duels down the field. The physical nature of the game, combined with the early goals, ensured a miserable day for the crestfallen Young Reds, who were unable to have their usual impact on either end of the field.
Caption: Allan Welsh wins one of his many aerial duels against the Young Reds (Image: Pagonis Photography)
Full Time
West Torrens Birkalla 3 (Conway, Klaassen-Thomas, Welsh)
Adelaide United 0