ABDIEL Arroyo opened his goal-scoring account for the Newcastle Jets with a spectacular volley worthy of a player who has been to a World Cup.
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The Panamanian had his back to goal when Matt Millar hurled a long throw-in into the guts of the Adelaide penalty box in the 37th minute. Arroyo shrugged off a defender, chested the ball down and then struck a stinging volley on the turn which nearly burst a hole in the back of the net. Brilliant.
Although delighted for the striker, Jets coach Ernie Merrick wants more of the less spectacular from the hired gun.
For all the clicks Arroyo's strike will deservedly receive, it wasn't enough to secure three points for the Jets as Adelaide came from behind to secure a 2-1 victory in front of 8899 fans at McDonald Jones Stadium on Saturday.
"The good thing was that Arroyo scored his first goal," Merrick said. "Hopefully there are more to come. It shows what he is capable of and it was good to see him score. But he needs to do it a lot more and he needs to get in goal-scoring positions. He can't score spectacular goals on a regular basis. He has to get in positions to have tap-ins. That is what good strikers do. They score a couple of spectacular goals but most are tap-ins."
The perfect example of what Merrick was referring too happened inside a minute. Johnny Koutroumbis burst down the left and whipped a ball across the face of goal. The pass pierced the defence, but Arroyo and Jason Hoffman couldn't get a touch.
It summed up the Jets' performance, especially the first half. They created numerous chances, but outside of Arroy's piece of magic, couldn't deliver a killer blow.
"Once again the stats showed that we had a lot more shots and we didn't score any goals other than that first one," Merrick said. "I think the defence generally are very good and our midfield were very strong, but we just don't finish off chances. You don't score goals, then you put yourself under the pressure that we did.
"We do a lot of training on the front third, playing the ball in early and getting numbers in there. Doing it under pressure is a bit different. We are either delaying the cross or not having enough players in there to finish it off."
Adelaide, more so Riley McGree, made them pay. The one-time Jets scorpion king latched onto a James Troisi cut-back to equalise in the 49th minute.
McGree then snatched all three points, making the most of a gusting south-westerly to whip a wicked left-foot in-swinging corner that bamboozled everyone including Glen Moss.
The Jets thought they had an equaliser in the 69th minute when Matthew Ridenton swooped on a rebound and drilled a shot into the left corner. However, the VAR ruled that the ball had struck the upper arm of Arroyo in the lead up.
"The boys are very disappointed," Merrick said. "We put on a good display, have nothing to show for it and conceded goals that were a bit unlucky. I will be positive all week with them but we need to do something in the front third."
