Sunday, October 16, 2011

BRISBANE 2 (Besart Berisha 43m, Thomas Broich 72m) v SYDNEY 0 Crowd: 15,781. Referee: Strebre Delovski.

Sydney were value in the first half, pushing hard mainly via Emerton on the left. The ground was wet and at times it seemed to be raining, leading to spectacles like 2 Roar foul throws in a row. However, in the second half Brisbane kept the ball clear of Emerton, and Sydney ran out of steam. The last 30 minutes of the game were not even close as Roar's possession pushed up to 80%.

After the game, Sydney's coach lamented not having a striker. Gee. I hear Branco Culina and Frank Farina are available as coaches, both could make more of what is a very talented Sydney squad.

I don't understand the Sydney decision to keep playing at the SFS. It makes a nearly 16,000 look like a poor show-up.

The game of the season will be Brisbane v Adelaide. Despite Adelaide's loss to Perth first up, I expect them to emerge as title contenders.

3 comments:

orangecrush said...

Great start to the season by Nichols. MOTM in both games for me. Team is actually trying to play faster and even more committed to playing out of defence regardless of the pressure.

Hamish Alcorn said...

Has there ever been a better time to be a fan of any sporting team anywhere? If Brisbane (public) doesn't start to show up this season, the theory, "good football and wins will bring the crowds" will, unfortunately, be put to bed.

john said...

Thank you Orangecrush - Ange has made the point that the how is more important than the outcome, for the first time I have seen he was shouting at the team yesterday ('run the angles'). Fox commentators were getting frustrated at the lack of ball time for Emmo in the second half, my guess is that Ange tweaked the approach at half to keep the ball away from him.

Thanks Hamish - it will be interesting to see if they do show up. They will for a final.