The humidity and a very damp pitch got to the Roar.
Perth relied on bashing the ball forward and, when Brisbane drew level, bashing Brisbane's front line. And it worked.
In this game, Brisbane missed Franjic. Brisbane was left with a left sided advance that Andy Todd smacked out. Meanwhile, most of the Roar's build up went right but stopped at Milan Susak, who seemed pinned to the spot despite having space in front of him. The ball was then cut back to Mitch Nichols, who was forced into traffic.
The way Perth wasted time in the last 20 minutes was embarrassing to the A-League, particularly Robbie Fowler refusing to leave the field when subbed until Mitch Nichols had had medical attention. Now Fowler is like Charlie Miller, lots of gamesmanship and occasional, if brilliant, involvement.
Ref Jared Gillett's poor decision making had too much involvement in the game. He missed a Perth hand ball penalty and failed to provide any protection to Broich and Henrique. Quality needs to be rewarded over foul play. He gave Andy Todd a yellow for elbowing Broich in the neck. So the yellow means he thought it was deliberate. If it was deliberate it must be red - voilent conduct. Henrique was away at one stage and seemed, even to Perth players who stopped, to be held back - yet play on.
A frustrating night. A very good team playing without any energy, against a poor team who got lucky and scored first.
Rubbing salt into the fans braving poor weather conditions, was a club decision to save money by not replacing Reinaldo. It shows that the success this year has been Ange and that the club lacks ambition. The irony is that Fox Sports had framed the message for the Roar - not wanting to break the rhythm and showing faith in the squad. But no. Brisbane announced that they could not afford an experienced player. What they need is something to grab the attention of potential fans, look for ways to fill Suncorp. What will they do when they aren't on the best winning streak in Australian soccer history?
4 comments:
Two points.
1. I'm almost certain that the ball hit the defender's shoulder, so it wasn't a penalty.
2. A yellow card for Todd's hit doesn't mean that the Ref believed it was intentional. You can be carded for reckless, unintentional actions on the field.
To be honest I didn't have any major complaints with the refereeing, apart from the Henrique foul that you mention.
Thanks
I haven't watched the TV version yet, but I was sitting high up and nearly in line with the penalty box. Looked upper arm to me, and deliberate.
Fair point about the Todd incident. BTW I was surprised to see him as I thought he was injured.
The ref kept talking to the Perth players. They seemed to be trying to divert his attention from time wasting.
John - excellent summary. We were quite lethargic first half but ok for teh first 20 of the second. I thought after we scored we would run all over them and we did for 5 minutes but really ran out of puff for the first time this season. I think we miss Franjic more than McKay. Nichols was very good. Murdocca's passing has the finesse of a drunk rhino - but we have no one else to cover the territory without McKay.
Anonymous - Remember Harry Kewell vs Ghana or Luke DeVere last game vs Perth at Suncorp. I thought it was identical to the one given against DeVere.
Thanks Orangecrush
I watched the replay and I think:
1. Todd should have been sent off and the commentators hinted that that would have been the case in the EPL.
2. The commentators wanted Susak off, but thought Ange was a genius for subbing Massimo for Henrique. However, I would have pushed Massimo to right back (and subbed Susak) and let Massimo do the forward running. It wouldn't have taken long for Perth to collect some cards on their left.
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