Adelaide United's Asian Champions League momentum was slowed by an unambitious performance and 1-0 loss to Sanfrecce Hiroshima in Japan on Tuesday night.
Previously unbeaten and top of their group, the Reds showed precious little intent in the first half at the Big Arch and went behind to Hisato Sato's header in the shadows of the break.
They were then unable to equalise in the final 45 minutes despite numerous opportunities to do so.
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Missed opportunities
Travis Dodd and Sergio Van Dijk in particular will be shaking their heads about missing decent opportunities to take United to the cusp of qualification for the next phase with a hard-earned point on foreign shores.
Contrary to his pre-match words, Reds boss Aurelio Vidmar did not make a single change to the starting 11 that had earned a 3-2 win at home to Hiroshima last week.
Hiroshima seemed hesitant to run at United, their only early efforts coming from outside the box despite winning more possession in the first half - one by Masato Yamazaki in the 25th minute forcing a solid save by Eugene Galekovic.
Gradually, the pressure was lifted, perhaps as Hiroshima realised how flat the Reds were.
Yamazaki struck the crossbar with a volleyed effort on 29 minutes as United crept back deeper than they should have.
Free kick
On 33 minutes a free kick on the right wing saw Travis Dodd get the ball caught in his feet with the goal gaping before Matthew Leckie fired straight at Shusaku Nishikawa.
Adelaide looked as though they would reach the half on terms, but in the 45th minute Satoru Yamagishi's shot was parried away by Galekovic and the resulting corner was flicked to the back post where Sato headed comfortably home, his marker nowhere to be seen.
On resumption Adelaide showed some overdue urgency, and were again helped by the second half introductions of Cassio and Fabien Barbiero.
But a vital goal was unable to be located to level the scores - not for a lack of chances.
On 64 minutes Lucas Pantelis squared dangerously across goal after Marcos Flores' back-heel but found no-one there to turn it in, and 20 minutes later Travis Dodd headed over from Cassio's cross.
'Lacklustre' first half
Van Dijk curled a free kick straight into the arms of Nishikawa despite the advantage of a dangerous position.
As the match entered injury time he went even closer, shooting wide from inside the box and recoiling in horror at his inability to convert.
Vidmar said his players' first instinct appeared to be to go backwards rather than forward.
"I just thought we probably didn't get forward as quickly as we would have liked," he said.
"Every time we won the ball in the midfield the first decision was to go back and they got numbers behind the ball pretty quickly.
"Then our movement going forward was pretty lacklustre in the first half."
