Make no mistake Brisbane dominated this match.
Sydney put up a half baked performance dominated by basic errors by Brosque and Aloisi. The performance from Pieter Collen was sublime. Ham stood up and claims the keeper jersey for next year. Oar was brilliant as were Zullo and Devere. Henrique looks back to his rocketing best. Why wasn't his return promoted? Matt McKay as Captain was sublime.
Poor old Steve Corica. Time to retire. Should have gone to the Fury.
It is a shame that other teams are not judged by the standards that the Roar have been judged by this year.
Sydney can thank Clint Bolton and the ref that the scoreline was not embarrassing. 3 or 4 to Brisbane would have been fair from this game.
Brisbane outplayed Sydney. And Sydney relied heavily on the long ball to try and catch the Roar defence off guard. So much for fancy European coaches.
I read a report from
Sportal - it was like the guy wasn't even watching the game. But for some very very suspect referring, Sydney would have ended the game with 9 men.
A keeper handling the ball outside the box is a straight red. So in the 30th minute it was amazing to watch the ref wave play on when the Roar caught Bolton outside his box and having to push the ball away. Later, Bolton's skills would keep his team in the game.
In the 2nd half the ref, Michael Hester, missed a clear hand ball penalty.
In the middle of the second half Hester forgave a thuggish Shannon Cole a very late professional foul on Michael Zullo.
Perhaps some decisions have been made about making Sydney look good this season and keep the best squad on the park for the finals. However, it left a bitter taste in Brisbane fans mouths to watch dodgy decision after decision. Ange was just about having a fit. FFA should consider investigating the refereeing of this match.
Meanwhile, Sydney fans were raided by the police several times and were chaperoned by ground security through the match.
