KEY POINTS:
Waitakere United's battling 2-1 loss to Adelaide United at the Fifa Club World Cup in Japan was further put in context in Sunday's quarter-final when the South Australians held the highly favoured Japanese side Gamba Osaka to 1-0.
Osaka now go on to play Manchester United in the semifinals while Adelaide wait to play off for fifth and sixth.
But, despite their absence in Japan, Adelaide have held their top spot on the Hyundai A-League table by a point from Melbourne Victory, whom they will now play in the rescheduled match on January 6.
Queensland Roar joined Melbourne on 23 points with their 2-1 home win over Newcastle Jets while Central Coast, also 2-1 home winners (over Sydney FC), are just a point back.
Queensland needed stoppage time goals at the end of each half - from Mitch Nichols and Sergio Van Dijk - to beat the Jets, who had taken the lead when Joel Griffiths scored after 26 minutes.
Newcastle, at home to Melbourne on Friday, will be without Jobe Wheelhouse, who was sent off after a second yellow card in the 70th minute.
Central Coast, too, just got home needing a 90th-minute Mile Jedinak penalty to beat Sydney, who had got back to 1-1 in the 65th minute with a John Aloisi penalty. Dylan Macallister had opened the scoring after 11 minutes.
In a match in which referee Strebre Delovski did not flash any cards, the Wellington Phoenix grabbed an 84th-minute Tim Brown equaliser after Eugene Dadi had given Perth Glory the lead seven minutes earlier.
The Phoenix are back at Westpac Stadium in the early Friday match to play Central Coast, while in the only other 16th-round match-up, Sydney are at home to Perth on Sunday. The match between Adelaide and Queensland will be played on January 14.
