NEWS

Adelaide United of Australia came from behind to beat Waitakere United of New Zealand 2-1 in the opening match of the FIFA Club World Cup Japan 2009 presented by Toyota on Thursday night before 19,777 spectators at the National Stadium in Tokyo.

Adelaide will meet Asian champions Gamba Osaka on Sunday at Toyota Stadium in Aichi Prefecture. Gamba defeated Adelaide 5-0 in the two-leg final of the AFC Champions League.
Paul Seaman put the Oceania champions ahead in the 34th minute after Adelaide goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic fumbled a Neil Sykes free-kick.
But four minutes later, Adelaide evened things up when right-back Daniel Mullen rose high in the area to head home a Paul Reid corner.
The Aussies came close through Mullen and left-back Scott Jamieson with about 15 minutes left in the game, before forward Travis Dodd broke the tie by heading home a Reid cross seven minutes from time.
The A-League team came close again with a minute to go when Cristiano was denied by Waitakere goalkeeper Richard Gillespie.
Waitakere, making their second successive appearance in the tournament, had chances in stoppage time. Substitute forward Kayne Vincent hit a Roy Krishna cross wide with a volley, and a minute later, Krishana headed a corner narrowly wide.
“It was very difficult game,” Adelaide manager Aurelio Vidmar said. “They defended very well with lots of numbers. When they got their goal, it made it very difficult for us.”
“But we kept plugging away and managed to get a very good goal four or five minutes later to move on to the second half. We learned to be a little patient tonight.”
Asked about their next game against Gamba, Vidmar replied: “It’s going to be a different game from tonight. We need everyone playing above average. If you can do that, you never know what happens in football, like you can see tonight.”
Waitakere manager Chris Milicich said, “It was a tough loss. But one of the key things we came here to do was to get a little redemption from last year. I think we categorically proved that Oceania deserve to be in this tournament.”