Ange came over to us at the end of the game. He was happy. Clapping. Waving. Punching the air. And we cheered. He did this.
A crowd of 25,000 is not a Roar record. But for season 6 2010-11 it will be close to the high point. And they will be back on Sunday 13 March for a 4pm kick off. Will CCM? I'm not sure. By the 90th minute they looked spent, despite still, literally, fighting including manhandling the ref (7 week band anyone - or don't we do that anymore?).
Brisbane had this match for the first 30 odd minutes. CCM struggled to push forward, struggled to get possession.
Then over 3 or minutes of play, Brisbane fell apart at the back. An own goal bouncing off Smith's chest and the off the kickoff, everyone backed off as CCM came forward.
Once the goals went in, CCM lifted and played as if they were the Roar and the Roar were not. Roar passes went short. They often looked flat-footed and stopped running off the ball. CCM were swarming towards the Roar goal. In the second half, Eric Paartalu shifted to centre-back in an attempt to get Susak and Smith wider. Then Henrique came on for Mitch. Henrique brought speed energy and ideas to what had started to look very static for Brisbane. Massiomo on for Solorzano allowed Henrique to shift from the left to the right, suddenly Brisbane were opening up CCM on both sides - back to the good old days.
After 2 brilliant games in a row, Kosta Barbarouses struggled to get going, firing off low percentage shots when he could have surged into the box.
Broich was again fouled out of the game. Let's hope that fouls clearly designed to take him out of the game are punished in the Grand Final.
CCM's keeper Ryan did keep them in the game, but by the end of the game was left on his own on the ground, head inside his shirt.
At the end, CCM were too reliant on their physicality, and panicked.
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