Sydney FC poured more misery on Adelaide United defeating them by four goals to nil at Hindmarsh Stadium in the Westfield W-League Round 7 match. The class and depth of Sydney was too much for the home team, the visitors now moving to the top of the league table.

Adelaide, though, took the game to Sydney in the early minutes. A long shot from Donna Cockayne was well held by Dimi Poulis as early as the third minute. Then Victoria Balomenos got in behind the defence but her shot went wide.

Next it was a corner kick from the right which could not be cleared by the Sydney defence and having a number of attenpts blocked Adelaide’s foray ended when Stacey Day sent her shot over.

Having weathered the early storm, Sydney basically took over for the rest of the half, scoring wise at least. Although it took until the tenth minute for the first shot by Sydney, it was only another six before the opening goal.

As with the rest of the goals in the match, the Adelaide defence were found wanting. Caitlin Foord raced down the right unattended. Her cross found the onrushing Leena Khamis who’s diving header gave Kristi Burgess no chance. Had Khamis not made connection, there were no less than two other Sydney players ready to tap in.

Yet while Sydney had taken the lead, Adelaide also provided some offence to keep the crowd enthused. When Balomenos went down the right, her low cross was just out of the reach of the oncoming Racheal Quigley.

Just on half-time, Sydney doubled their lead, and again it was a sleepy defence that suffered. Ledbrook sent Allen down the right. Her cross went over the goal area to the far post.

Most, especially the Adelaide defence, thought the ball was going out. Khamis, though, did not reaching the ball to head it back across goal. There, standing about a metre from the line in the middle of the goal was Kyah Simon, and she put her head in the way to nod the ball home.

The second goal possibly broke the back of Adelaide’s back. It was going to be a long 45 mnutes for the home team following the break.

Adelaide, though, were not going lying down. The trouble is that they also had zero luck in the game. This came through only eight minutes into the half.

A free kick for Adelaide fell to Ruth Blackburn. Her first attempt was well blocked by the Sydney defence. Her second was grabbed acrobatically by the flying Poulis.

Poulis then sent a long kick to free her attack. Adelaide fouled Khamis and Simon intelligently took the free kick quickly, releasing Ledbrook. The midfielder took a shot early from outside the box beating Burgess, sending her shot into the top right corner.

Adelaide had another great opportunity to score midway through the half. A corner from Balomenos found an unmarked Day on the edge of the six-yard box. Her glancing header went wide, as did most of Adelaide’s opportunities.

Then with a quarter of an hour left, Simon nabbed her second goal. Taking the ball down the right she beat Blackburn and sent her shot accurately inside the far post.

Following the fourth goal, the game errupted with a number of rather bad fouls, some punished, others not. The worst, one that did not get the proper attention, saw Simon use her forearm to charge into Day. Simon was given a caution where a send off may have been warranted.

There was no more scoring, but both Day and Blackburn were also cautioned for tackles that were probably not needed.

The result means that Sydney return to the top of the competition, awaiting the result of Tuesday’s postponed clash between Brisbane and Canberra. For Adelaide, they now hold the record for the longest run without a win by a team in any national football competition.

Adelaide have the enthusiasm and do play the ball around, but they lack any competence and confidence in the front part of their formation and discipline in the back part. Until they can get even part of that right, they will struggle to get their first win.

With the Brisbane match postponed, the two Japanese referees were sent to Adelaide for this game. It may have been the qick decision, or something else, but the difference between the two referees was shown out.

While Sachiko Yamagishi showed poise and confidence in the game last Saturday in Wollongong, Fusako Kajiyama seemed not to know when to make decisions and what decision to make. Certainly the Japanese referee did allow play to continue, but it did not appear that she had control of the game.

The decision to have an exchange of referees was definitely something that should be done again, and again, and I applaud the Queensland FA who had initiated it.