A second half Nic Bucco hat-trick helped Adelaide City secure their 18th Federation Cup as they recorded the biggest win in Federation Cup Final history with a 5-0 win over Modbury Jets at the new at the newly named ServiceFM Stadium.
A festival of Cup Final Day football was enjoyed by 3,723, with the official opening of the facility also taking place in amongst 3 Cup Finals and 1 Women’s Cup Semi-Final.
Adelaide City looked dangerous early in the encounter as they began the match on the front foot, as their continued press on Modbury Jets saw their opponents unable to maintain any possession.
Ayom Ayom Majok opened the scoring for Adelaide City early in the encounter, as the attacker met a Matthew Dawber through ball in the eleventh minute, which led to him slipping the ball through the Modbury Jet’s keepers’ legs to take the score to 1-0.
Modbury Jets were eager to bring the fight to Adelaide City, with the squad utilising the class of Hamish Mccabe who continued to prove a troubling threat to Dakota Ochsenham in the Adelaide City net.
Already down 1-0, Modbury Jets were not prepared to fall further behind, leading to the team receiving a few early yellow cards as they were forced to stop the pace of Adelaide City’s counterattack.
Matthew Dawber further demonstrated his class as he topped off an impressive first half performance with Adelaide City’s second only minutes before the half-time break, as he coolly brought down a well delivered Daniel Bressan cross to place the ball into the back of the net.
Coming out of the break with a two-goal lead, Adelaide City were not prepared to sit back and defend their lead, with Paul Pezos’ team eager to further increase the score. Matthew Dawber and Charlie Devereux were unfortunate not to increase their lead to three goals with both players narrowly missing the back of the net.
Modbury Jets came close to restoring the deficit to one, however a wall of Adelaide City players was prepared to put their bodies on the line to prevent Hamish Mccabe from securing his team’s first of the afternoon.
The game drastically changed when Adelaide City coach Paul Pezos introduced the experienced Nic Bucco to the match, with the midfielder proving to be a problem for the Modbury Jets defence.
The downfall for Modbury Jets came in the 62nd minute when a trailing boot from midfielder Darsem Shaksi caught the face of Nicholas Bucco, which saw him receive a straight red card, while providing Adelaide City with an opportunity to increase their lead from the penalty spot. Bucco stepped up to the spot to further increase Modbury Jets misery, giving Adelaide City the 3-0 lead.
Bucco introduction to the game further paid off for Adelaide City, as a couple of neat touches around the edge of the box saw him bring the ball onto his left foot as his strike found the bottom corner, taking the score to 4-0 before the 70th minute mark.
If Adelaide City’s lead was in any question, it was erased in the 86th minute as super-sub Nicholas Bucco secured his hattrick as he found himself one-on-one with the Modbury Jets goalkeeper, where he once again found the bottom corner.
Earlier in the day, Football SA NTC secured a 3-2 victory over Adelaide Olympic to win the Under 18’s Federation Cup. Adelaide United FC were then crowned the Reserves Federation Cup Champions after an impressive display which saw them beat Adelaide City 5-0. While we were treated to incredible WNPL & WSL Cup action as Adelaide City beat WT Birkalla 2-0 to reach the Final.
