Adelaide United 3
Wellington Phoenix 0
KEY POINTS:
The goals flowed but not from any Phoenix players as the third round of the A-League produced a record-equalling haul.
The unimpressive Wellington Phoenix did not contribute to the goalfest, going down 3-0 to Adelaide United, a performance captain Andrew Durante tagged "garbage".
Now, with a week off as attention turns to international fixtures in the Fifa window, the Phoenix must regroup and prepare for their September 14 home game with defending champions Central Coast Mariners who will travel on the back of their first win of the season - 4-2 away to Queensland Roar.
"The break has probably come at a good time for us," said Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert. "It's a good chance for us to reflect on things and to turn our attention back to what we were doing before [in the 2008 Pre-Season Cup competition]."
Herbert was left seeing red at Hindmarsh Stadium as his team struggled against Adelaide.
"It was really disappointing. We were absolutely not at the level we needed to be and we need to take a long, hard look at ourselves. We were flat throughout and no one made a contribution from a 60-, 70- or 80-minute point of view.
"It wasn't good enough and we need to be better."
Elsewhere there were some impressive showings, with warm favourites Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC shooting to the top of the table with Adelaide - the only three unbeaten teams.
Sydney's 5-2 home win over Perth Glory equalled the second-highest tally of goals scored in a Hyundai A-League game. Shannon Cole, who had an injury-interrupted season with Waitakere a couple of years ago, was again on the scoresheet for Sydney as he joined Alex Brosque, who scored in the opening two minutes, Steve Corica (a 21st minute penalty) and Mark Bridge as first half scorers at the Sydney Football Stadium.
Down 1-4 at half-time, Perth got one back when Eugene Dadi scored his second in the 68th minute but the home side were handed a fifth late in the game through an own goal.
Perth's cause was not helped when Dino Djulbic was sent off after 20 minutes for dissent.
Elsewhere, the referees had a relatively quiet night with three teams getting through without a caution and a total of only 14 issued in the round.
Melbourne were back to their best handing visiting Newcastle Jets a 5-0 drubbing in front of 22,589 fans at the Telstra Dome.
Danny Allsopp scored twice for the Victory in the second half after they had led 1-0 at the break following Carlos Hernandez' 41st minute opener. Archie Thompson added the second a minute into the second half and the Victory set sail. Allsopp now leads the golden boot race with four.
In the thriller at Suncorp, Queensland were forced to play catch-up as the Mariners went 3-0 up after 63 minutes and then gave up two goals in four minutes including a penalty when Mark Bosnich gave away a penalty and was lucky to escape further punishment from New Zealand referee Peter O'Leary.
* Waitakere United coach Chris Milicich, just back from England where he has joined a select group of New Zealanders to gain a Uefa A-licence qualification, was more interested in evaluating Adelaide than the Phoenix at Hindmarsh as the South Australians are through to the last eight in the Asian Champions League and loom as a potential opponent for Waitakere at the Fifa World Club Cup in Japan in December.
