This was followed up with a highly successful pre-season cup which the Reds won, defeating Central Coast Mariners on penalties in the grand final.
Following a controversial post grand final interview, Ross Aloisi was sacked as captain of Adelaide United, and left the club to move to Wellington Phoenix.
On Friday 29 September 2006, Adelaide United Football Club released an official statement[permanent dead link] on their website which confirmed the signing of Romário to a four match guest stint.
They began with a 2–2 draw with Galaxy and played in front of a 1,500 strong crowd at the Marden Sports Complex against a Super League Select.
United won this match on penalties after Andre Gumprecht cancelled out Carl Veart's spectacular overhead bicycle kick.
The three Brazilians impressed particularly Alessandro who won the penalty and gave Adelaide's Richie Alagich a lot of trouble down the flanks.
Another lackluster performance from Adelaide as the much-improved New Zealand Knights stole all three points with an early contender for goal of the season from Ghanaian midfielder Malik Buari.
Sean Devine, Jonti Richter and Darren Bazeley were all solid contributors for New Zealand while the entire Adelaide side played well below their best.
Adelaide returns to form with an emphatic 5–1 demolition of the Newcastle United Jets on a cold, wet Friday night at Hindmarsh Stadium.
Adelaide United put in their second successive impressive performance and they were simply too good for the Glory who seemed to have no power going forward without injured stars Stan Lazaridis and Bobby Despotovski.
United created chances from the first whistle with Dodd going close before Fernando opened the scoring with a shot in the 14th minute which beat goalkeeper Aleks Vrteski.
The second goal came as the Glory defence sat back allowing superb winger Dodd too much time and space and he blasted the ball straight through Vrteski to make it 2–0.
United added the third goal five minutes after the interval as Fernando's shot which was heading wide of the target took a wicked deflection off Jamie Coyne and fooled Vrteski.
Their five-man attack consisting of Ante Milicic, Reinaldo, Yuning Zhang, Simon Lynch and Dario Vidosic is certain to score goals this season and only some outstanding saves by Reds keeper Robert Bajic kept Adelaide in the game.
United returned from the half time interval as the better team and they only had to wait eight minutes before Nathan Burns scored his first A-League goal.
Dodd made all the hard work go to waste however, when three minutes later he scored an own goal attempting to clear a ball which posed no danger.
The Mariners started as the better side but United scored the opener as Jason Spagnuolo made the most of a defensive error by Damian Mori to provide the cross from which Carl Veart headed home from close range.
Central Coast hit back a quarter of an hour later as Australian football legend and Socceroos all-time top scorer Damian Mori received a good ball, beat Ang Costanzo for pace and rounded 'keeper Robbie Bajic before celebrating his return to Hindmarsh Stadium in front of 10,000 booing Reds supporters.
Adelaide after the half time break and threw absolutely everything at CCM with Matthew Kemp and Bobby Petta having almost identical chances saved by Vukovic.
Petta provided a good corner and tall centre back Kristian Rees headed home for his first goal of the season.
One of the matches of the season as the Melbourne Victory attempted to maintain a 100% record against an Adelaide side nearing the top of their game.
The Victory had the better of the chances during the match, yet it was the Reds who came away with the 3 points as a counter-attacking move saw Greg Owens run free and slot the ball past 'keeper Theoklitos.
The main talking point however, was an altercation between Victory captain Kevin Muscat and Adelaide coach John Kosmina.
However, the defensive effort wasn't as good as the Hindmarsh crowd has come to expect with poor defending giving Noah Hickey the Knights second of the season and Adam van Dommele scoring an embarrassing own goal to make matters worse.
At 1–1, 88 minutes into the match, Carl Veart had a chance to steal the game and cement second place on the ladder with his third spot kick of the night.
Early in the second half Matty Kemp scored a goal from a narrow angle where he jumped and kicked the ball over the keepers head only for it to sneak under the crossbar and win the game.
Gao Leilei scored in the 16th minute after Richie Alagich started to wander and entered the 6-yard box without any pressure and slotted the ball past Beltrame's near post.
In the 15th minute the young Spagnuolo skinned two defenders, feinted past Eagleton to deliver a shot at goal that Covic parried away.
After half time Kwasnik missed a penalty after Kemp hand-balled in the box and straight after Burns scored his second of the night with a cheeky feint to trick the keeper.
Beltrame kicked it straight to Pondeljak who showed instinct and skill by perfectly placing it above Bells head and ending his hope for his clean sheet.