Adelaide United FC

Adelaide United Football Club is a professional soccer club based in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club participates in the A-League under licence from Football Federation Australia. The club was founded in 2003 to fill the place vacated by Adelaide City and West Adelaide in the former National Soccer League (NSL), and is now the sole team from the state of South Australia in the A-League. Adelaide United's home ground is Hindmarsh Stadium. Adelaide United were premiers in the inaugural 2005–06 A-League season, finishing 7 points clear of the rest of the competition, before finishing third in the finals. They were Premiers again in 2015/16 finishing just one point ahead of second place Western Sydney. The Reds made the Grand Finals of the 2006–07, 2008–09 and 2015–16seasons, losing the on the first two occasions to Melbourne Victory.

Adelaide United holds the record for the largest win in an A-League game and the most goals scored in one game. Adelaide defeated North Queensland Fury 8–1 at Hindmarsh Stadium on 21 January 2011. It was also the first time – and, to date, remains the only time – a team had two players score hat-tricks in a single match: one to Marcos Flores and the other to Sergio van Dijk. In 2014, Adelaide United were the winners of the first FFA Cup, beating Perth Glory 1–0 in the final, and in 2016 won their first ever A-League Grand Final, beating the Western Sydney Wanderers 3–1 with goals from Bruce Kamau, Isaías and Pablo Sanchez.

National Soccer League
In August 2003, Adelaide City withdrew from the National Soccer League (NSL), leaving Adelaide with no NSL presence for the first time since the beginning of the league in 1977. West Adelaide had previously withdrawn from the NSL in 1999. In response, Adelaide United was created on 12 September 2003, with builder and property developer Gordon Pickard funding the new club and former Soccer Australia and FIFA executive Basil Scarsella as Chairman.

On 13 September, former Brisbane Strikers and Newcastle Breakers manager John Kosmina was officially announced as the manager, and within the frame of a few weeks time a team was cobbled together mostly with the remnants of the Adelaide City squad to compete in the clubs inaugural season. On 17 October 2003, Adelaide United won its first NSL match, against Brisbane Strikers 1–0 in front of a crowd in excess of 16,000 people.

After an impressive home-and-away season, including a seven-match unbeaten streak during November and December 2003, Adelaide United reached the NSL preliminary final, losing to Perth Glory. The NSL came to an end at the completion of the 2003–04 season after 28 seasons with The Reds only competing in the final season as governing body Australian Soccer Association (later Football Federation Australia) shut down the league in preparation for the launch of the fully professional A-League almost 12 months later, on 26 August 2005.

2005–06 season
Main article: 2005–06 Adelaide United FC season

Continuing their good form from the final season of the NSL, Adelaide United finished as Premiers in the inaugural season of the Hyundai A-League. The Reds were bundled out of the finals race in straight sets losing to Sydney FC in the two leg semi final and then Central Coast Mariners 1–0 in the preliminary final at Hindmarsh.

2006–07 season
Main article: 2006–07 Adelaide United FC season

Adelaide United started the season well by winning the A-League Pre-Season Challenge Cup, beating reigning champions Central Coast Mariners 5-4 on penalties after 1-1 at the end of extra time. In the premiership season, The Reds finished runners up to Melbourne Victory. After a successful finals campaign, The Reds advanced to the 2006–07 Grand Final after winning 4–3 on penalties (1–1 AET) against the Newcastle Jets. Adelaide United played Melbourne Victory at the Telstra Dome in the Grand Final on 18 February 2007 losing 6–0. Coach John Kosmina was sacked the following week-however not only because of the grand final disaster but for alleged abuse of 2 Channel 10 reporters.

The 2006–07 season also saw Brazilian international Romário join the club for a four-game guest player stint.

Adelaide United were selected, along with Sydney FC, as the first Australian representatives to play in the 2007 AFC Champions League. They received their Asian berth as A-League premiers. Adelaide was drawn into Group G with Chinese champion Shandong Luneng Taishan, Korean champions Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma and Vietnamese league and Super Cup champions Gach Dong Tam Long An. Adelaide finished 3rd in its group.

Colours and badge
Adelaide United's original strip was made using the three South Australian state colours: red, blue and yellow. The shirt was mainly red with a large yellow stripe down both sleeves with blue being used for the short colour and the stripe running down each side of the top. The badge also uses the state colours in a stylised swoosh, above what appears to be a football made with the Southern Cross, as opposed to the traditional hexagonal panels of a football. The football is similar in appearance to that of the UEFA Champions League logo.

Since their inception into the A-League, Adelaide United's kits, along with the rest of the league, have been manufactured by Reebok. United's kit has moved towards a predominately all-red kit, both top and shorts, with black trim. Originally, the away strip was predominantly white, with red sleeves and yellow trim however in 2009 the club launched a predominantly black 'clash' strip.

The launch of the new national league also saw Adelaide launch a new badge; while keeping a similar look and feel as its predecessor the new badge takes the form of more traditional football badge with its shield like border.

Adelaide United's 2009–10 playing kit didn't feature a sponsor on the front of their kit. Towards the end of the season, United signed a deal with Jim's Group which saw the Jim's Plumbing logo feature on the front of United's home and away kits. The deal only lasted for the remainder of the season as the logo isn't displayed on Adelaide's home or away kits in the 2010–11 season.

On 16 December 2010, Coopers Brewery announced that their logo would feature on the front of the jersey for the remainder of the season, in a deal worth to be around $200,000.

As of 1 April 2011, all A-League clubs were able to negotiate new kit supplier deals as the previous contract with Reebok had elapsed and as such, Adelaide United negotiated a 3-year deal with Erreà.

On 2 March 2012, the club announced Legea as the official kit suppliers for their 2012 Asian Champions League campaign. Legea are exclusively supplying all of the team's authentic on-field and off-field apparel for the clubs 6 ACL group-stage matches.

Adelaide United is most commonly referred to as "The Reds" because of their predominantly red playing kit. In February 2009 the club's head coach, Aurelio Vidmar referred to the City of Adelaide as a "Pissant Town" after suffering a heartbreaking loss. The club's supporters eventually utilised the name "Pissants" as a term of endearment and it became an unofficial nickname of the club between its supporters.

Stadium
See also: Hindmarsh Stadium Adelaide United play their home matches at Hindmarsh Stadium with the exceptions being when they played two games a year at Adelaide Oval, one against interstate rivals Melbourne Victory and traditional rivals Sydney FC. Even though Adelaide lost the first of these two encounters 3–1, it was South Australia's largest Association Football crowd in history with 25,039 people filling the stands, many others were turned away at the gates. The second match in 2009 saw 23,002 people attend the game.

Hindmarsh Stadium seating capacity is 17,000. Adelaide United's first home game in the now defunct National Soccer League saw over 15,000 supporters watch Adelaide win 1–0 over the Brisbane Strikers.

A-League crowds have averaged 10,947 in 2005–06 and over 12,000 supporters attending in both 2006–07 and 2007–08 seasons. Despite a lack of on-field success, crowds at United's games remained healthy during the 2009–10 season relative to other clubs, largely due to the club's strong community-based initiatives. The record attendance for Hindmarsh Stadium was a full house of 17,000 on 12 November 2008 against Gamba Osaka in the historic second leg of the ACL final.

Support
Adelaide United's main active supporters' group is called the Red Army Donut Pizza and Burger Brigade.

Rivalries
Adelaide United's rivals are Melbourne Victory. Adelaide was again one of two of the leading teams in the 2006–07 season this time against Melbourne that saw an altercation between John Kosmina, the Adelaide United manager, and Kevin Muscat after the Victory captain knocked Kosmina over after entering the technical area to retrieve a ball. Kosmina then jumped up and grabbed Muscat around the throat for a few seconds. Season events culminated in the year's grandfinal that saw Adelaide captain, Ross Aloisi, sent off and Melbourne winning 6–0. The rivalry went beyond extreme after Melbourne defeated Adelaide United 1–0 in the 2008–09 grand final with United imported striker, Cristiano, given a controversial straight red card. The rivalry then went even further when Adelaide United defeated Melbourne 4–1 at AAMI Park, after United had been suffering a record-breaking 10-game losing streak against the Victory.

First team squad
'''Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.'''

The Aurelio Vidmar Club Champion (Player of the Year)
 For more details on this topic, see List of Adelaide United FC club award winners.

Coaching and medical staff
Football Department

Board and management
Ownership Consortium and Club Board
 * Chairman: Greg Griffin
 * Club Patron: Fay Gerard
 * Members of Consortium: Robert Gerard, Richard Noble and Bruno Marveggio


 * Additional Board Members: Joe Borreli and Francis Wong
 * CEO: Nathan Kosmina

Honours
See also: List of Adelaide United FC honours

Domestic

 * A-League Finals
 * Championships (1): 2016
 * Runners-up (2): 2007, 2009


 * Premiers Plate
 * Winners (2): 2006, 2016
 * Runners-up (2): 2007, 2009


 * FFA Cup:
 * Winners (1) – Shared Record: 2014
 * Runners-up (1): 2017


 * A-League Pre-Season Challenge Cup
 * Winners (2) – Record: 2006, 2007

Asian

 * AFC Champions League:
 * Runners-up (1): 2008

International

 * FIFA Club World Cup
 * Fifth place (1): 2008
 * Fair Play Award: 2008

Records
For more details on this topic, see List of Adelaide United FC records and statistics.

As of / Updated 4 December 2017.

Asian clubs ranking
As of 27 August 2017.