Adelaide beats Newcastle 7-0 in A-League

SYDNEY (AP) - Bruce Djite and Marcelo Carrusca scored doubles as Adelaide United crushed Newcastle 7-0 in the 15th round of the A-League on Saturday.

Djite started the avalanche in the first minute and Carrusca scored twice during a 12-minute spell in the first half in which Adelaide scored three goals to take a 4-0 lead to halftime. Ultimately, Adelaide posted its largest win in the A-League since its 8-1 defeat of North Queensland in 2011.

The win lifted Adelaide to second place ahead of Sunday's clash between first-place Perth and third-place Melbourne Victory.

Fifth-place Sydney FC beat Central Coast 5-1 to end a seven-match winless streak.

Newcastle beat Adelaide 2-1 in round 11 for its only win of the season so far, but Adelaide fully reversed that result as the league resumed after its mid-season break.

"We are so satisfied with today's game," Adelaide coach Josep Gombau said. "We scored with the chances that we have, it's important.

"Sometimes we create but we don't score, and today we had this high percentage that every time we arrived (at the goal) we score."

The loss left Newcastle stuck in ninth place in the 10-team league, four points ahead of Western Sydney and eight points outside the top six.

"Credit to Adelaide, they were just a wonderful product today," coach Phil Stubbins said. "We got smashed from start to finish. It could've probably been more if I'm putting my hand on my heart."

Sydney returned refreshed from its mid-season break to end its run of seven games without a win and four without a goal. Coach Graham Arnold, who led Central Coast to the league title, returned to the Mariners' home stadium for the first time as an opposition coach to mastermind the rout.

Austria captain Marc Janko scored twice, opening the scoring in the 15th minute and completing his double in the 48th as Sydney took a 4-0 lead before Travis Major pulled one back for Central Coast.

"There are players in the dressing room who need to take responsibility for the goals that we shipped tonight," Central Coast coach Phil Moss said. "We forgot that Christmas was out of the way tonight because we gift-wrapped some goals that I haven't seen before from this team."