Late strike continues Adelaide's winless start in A-League

SYDNEY (AP) - Marco Rojas scored in the third minute of stoppage time to give the Melbourne Victory a 2-1 win, extending Adelaide's winless start to its A-League title defense on Saturday.

At 1-1, Adelaide hit the uprights twice before Rojas tapped home the winner from Sebastian Pasquali's pass. The defeat means Adelaide has begun the season with a 1-1 draw against Newcastle, a loss to Western Sydney Wanderers in a repeat of last year's final, and Saturday's loss to the Victory.

Adelaide coach Guillermo Amor said his team "deserved a better result" but paid for missed chances.

In other third-round matches, Perth went temporarily atop the table with a 3-2 win over Melbourne City, and Brisbane beat Central Coast 1-0.

Sydney FC has the chance to reclaim first place when it meets winless Wellington, while Western Sydney is at home to Newcastle.

Adelaide seemed to have done enough to share the points with Melbourne when Tarek Elrich scored in the 68th minute to cancel out Besart Berisha's opening goal for the Victory.

Berisha was on the end of a sweeping counterattack involving Rojas, giving Melbourne the lead against the run of play. Adelaide equalized midway through the second half when Elrich struck a brilliant curling shot from Ryan Kitto's quickly taken free kick.

Danny Choi, on debut, and Sergi Guardiola both hit the post in the late stages of the match before Rojas snatched the winner for Melbourne, almost with the last kick of the game.

Victory coach Kevin Muscat believed his team earned the win for its enterprise.

"In the first half we were very good value," he said. "We could have come in with a greater advantage in the first half."

Amor was relaxed about his team's second successive injury-time defeat at home.

"Our team played fantastic and today it's impossible to say bad things," Amor said. "The attitude of the players, the control in moments for me was very good. We have a very good team, sensational players."

A hat trick from striker Andy Keogh fired Perth to a 3-2 win over Melbourne City on Friday. City twice came from behind to equalize before Keogh clinched Perth's win with his last score in the 85th minute.

Midfielder Thomas Kristensen's first-half score was enough to give Brisbane its first win of the season at Central Coast.