Eli Adams’ First Gamba Osaka Goal Comes in 3-3 AFC Champions League Draw

Eli Adams gave Gamba Osaka a glimpse of what his left foot can do, but the moment didn’t settle the match. His first goal for the Japanese club was a dipping free-kick from around 25 metres, struck with the kind of movement that makes a set piece difficult to read. Gamba still left Pohang with only a point after conceding in the 89th minute, turning a three-times-ahead performance into a frustrating draw.

A free-kick with a familiar signature

Adams won the set piece himself in the 69th minute, fouled just outside the area. From slightly right of centre, he sent a left-footed shot bending into the top-left corner to put Gamba 2-1 ahead. DAZN Japan praised the strike as world-class, pointing to the ball’s unusual movement in the air. It was a clean example of how a player’s specialist skill can change the shape of a match: the foul gave Gamba a chance, and Adams made the most of it.

The goal also fits a pattern in Adams’s recent work. Long-range strikes and dangerous delivery from dead-ball situations can give a side another way to threaten when open play stalls. That doesn’t mean every attempt will come off, or that one spectacular goal can tell the whole story of a player’s form. But opponents have to account for the possibility, and that can affect how cautiously they defend around the box.

It wasn’t a one-off. Adams had scored from long range for Newcastle against Macarthur last December, and three weeks before this match he supplied two assists in Gamba’s 3-1 comeback win over his former club at McDonald Jones Stadium. Those performances suggest his influence can extend beyond finishing, though a small run of highlights can’t establish how consistently he’ll shape Gamba’s attack.

Gamba coach Tomokazu Myojin welcomed the goal, saying in comments published by the club and translated from Japanese: “Regarding Eli (Adams) and Sumi, I am happy that they scored in a competitive match, and Eli (Adams) was able to demonstrate his greatest weapon, his left-footed kick.” The comment points to the value Myojin places on Adams’s distinctive delivery. A coach’s praise, though, doesn’t change the scoreline or answer the practical question of whether Gamba can protect a lead late in a match.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ガンバ大阪 (@gambaosaka_official)

Three leads, no win

Gamba took the lead three times at Steelyard, and Pohang answered each time. Ryotaro Meshino headed the visitors in front in the 34th minute; Wanderson equalised 10 minutes after the break. Jorge Teixeira levelled again in the 77th minute, then Koshiro Sumi finished a move two minutes later, with Ryoya Yamashita providing the final pass. Kim Gwang-won headed in a left-side cross in the 89th minute to secure Pohang’s first point of the 2026-27 league phase. The sequence made for an unusually open contest, but it also leaves Gamba with a plain defensive question: how did a side that moved ahead three times allow its opponent back into the game each time?

Adams came off three minutes after scoring, holding his left side near the ribs. His exit came just as his goal had given Gamba a chance to manage the final stretch with an advantage. After the match, he told Soccer Digest Web he was frustrated that Gamba had let a chance for all three points slip at the end. Three goals, he said, had proved insufficient. That’s a blunt assessment, and the late equaliser gives it force: an attacking contribution can lift a team, but it can’t compensate for a failure to see out the result.

What the draw means for Gamba

The result leaves Gamba on eight points after four league-phase matches. Adams, who earned his first Socceroos call-up for September’s two-match series against Brazil, is still waiting for his senior debut. The call-up places his club form in a wider frame, yet it doesn’t guarantee a role with Australia or tell us when that first appearance might come.

For Gamba, the immediate significance is the gap between scoring and securing a win. Three goals would usually give a team a strong platform; here, repeated concessions erased the advantage each time. Here’s the thing: Adams’s free-kick is the clip that will travel, but the final minutes are the part that should trouble the coaching staff. If you’re working in this space, you’ll recognize the tension between celebrating individual quality and assessing the team’s ability to control a match.

And this is the part most people overlook: a late equaliser can change how a performance is remembered without changing what went well earlier. Adams showed why his left foot can matter to Gamba, while Sumi and Meshino also contributed goals. Yet the point at Pohang is a reminder that attacking output and match management have to work together.

A striking goal. A frustrating finish.