Hiroshi Ibusuki was the star of the show for Adelaide United against Sydney FC in the A-League Men Unite Round, grabbing a hat-trick in an impressive 4-3 win.
The Japanese forward’s first three-goal haul in the competition helped move Adelaide up to fifth spot on the table at Allianz Stadium on Saturday night.
The result was Sydney’s first loss in four games after an encouraging goal-laden run under new coach Ufuk Talay.
But even with injuries depleting his squad, Talay will be frustrated with his side who were flattered by two late goals from Joe Lolley.
"That's been the story since I've been here," Talay said.
"We create those moments, those chances, and we don't capitalise.
"We were a little bit naive in defending the goals we conceded.
"In the second half I asked the boys to show a bit of character to get themselves back into the game, but the fourth goal destroyed us."
Sydney began in impressive fashion, with Rhyan Grant playing Anthony Caceres in down the left and the midfielder guiding the ball into the bottom corner to put the Sky Blues 1-0 up after just six minutes.
Fabio Gomes nearly doubled Sydney’s lead soon after but the towering Brazilian forward blazed his shot over the bar.
It was a mistake he would come to rue as Adelaide began to threaten and eventually got their reward, Ben Halloran crossing to the back post where Ibusuki was able to level.
The pair combined again soon after, with Halloran knocking down a ball for the striker inside the box.
Ibusuki turned sharply and buried his shot beyond the reach of goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne.
Sydney captain Luke Brattan was booked after flattening Adelaide teenager Nestory Irankunda and that seemed to spark the Bayern Munich-bound youngster into life.
When Ibusuki burst down the left, Irankunda waited and timed his run to perfection for a cross that evaded the Sydney defence and Redmayne.
Try as Grant might, he couldn't stop Irankunda’s shot from going over the line as the 17-year-old wheeled away and celebrated with his customary backflip.
The winger began the second half in similarly menacing fashion before being taken off with less than 25 minutes to go but Adelaide didn't let off the intensity as Ibusuki brought up his hat-trick.
Lolley nabbed one back for Sydney with quarter-of-an-hour to go and then added a flattering second four minutes into added time.
“(Ibusuki) has been outstanding since we’ve changed to having two up front,” Adelaide boss Carl Veart said.
“His goals, his link-up play - he’s been a leading light for us.
"I'm very happy for him to get those rewards for the work that he's been doing the last month.
“The first 20 minutes we were a bit shell-shocked, Sydney came quite hard, so I’m really happy with the resilience, with the way we dug in.”
