Herbert - able to put out an unchanged team with Manny Muscat jetting in from Melbourne and Leo Bertos cleared after a fitness test - had early concerns as Adelaide's Bruce Djite continued his amazing scoring efforts against the Phoenix, pouncing on a loose ball to fire home the 10th-minute opener.
It was the third time in as many matches between the two teams this season that Djite had opened the scoring. It was his sixth goal in six games against the New Zealanders.
Herbert's men needed less than three minutes to square it up. As defence was turned into attack, the ball was sent long and wide to Ifill. He gathered and played a neat shot square to Tim Brown, who met it first time and turned his body to fire away from Eugene Galekovic's despairing attempt in the Adelaide goal.
Play continued to swing back and forth before the Phoenix grabbed the go-ahead goal with eight minutes to go to the break when a freekick was played wide and then back into the mix, from where the diminutive Dani Sanchez cleverly headed home for 2-1.
The end-to-end template was still in evidence in the second half with chances at both ends as both coaches went to their bench.
From his first touch, in the 64th minute, Daniel sent a freekick long. Bloodied and bandaged birthday boy Ben Sigmund headed over.
Three minutes later, Ifill fired a long-range shot. Not much later, he was again in with a chance, this time smacking his shot on to the crossbar.
With seven minutes to play, Ifill was inexplicably denied a penalty for the Phoenix after he was tripped from behind by Nigel Boogaard while in the clear. Referee Gerard Parsons waved play on and then booked Daniel for diving.
