Booze And Atheism Win The Day

So God came to Suncorp Stadium on Wednesday night, but it turned out to be no religious experience. Those of us that choose not to believe in omnipotent beings had the final laugh and Robbie Fowler's North Queensland Fury suffered a two goal loss to the Brisbane Roar. To top of the experience it seems that the Roar play much better football when I drink large amounts of alcohol. On the walk from the office to Suncorp Stadium I decided that given the current form it was probably best if I treated the night as an excuse to down a few ales. With a two goal half time lead in place I decided that there was no point risking a second half collapse and hit the bar at the break for some refills.

Anyway sanity finally prevailed tonight and Ange realised that 3-5-2 was folly and finally returned the Roar to it's most effective 4-3-3 formation. Interestingly as a few of us had discussed at Saturday's game he went with Zullo at left back and Oar at left wing. The side was also bolstered by the reunion of McKay and Murducco in midfield for the first time this season while the return of Ivan Franjic at at right back meant a night free of Andrew 'Fudge' Packer.

Initially Roar fans could have been forgiven for thinking it was going to be another case of close but no cigar with a number of close calls. But after twenty minutes Sergio Van Dijk showed his class in the six yard box with a good finish from an Henrique cross. With the lead in place the Roar were looking pretty good and three minutes from the break Van Dijk doubled the lead when he finished a move that he started by picking out Zullo on the left flank who played in McKay whose ball across the face of goal picked out Van Dijk at the far post. Two nil up was a great start to the match and the Roar played the match out well to keep the scoreline intact.

So finally a good win at home again and three ever so precious points. For the first time in weeks the side looked really good and it was clear that we were finally playing the right system with the right players. The mobility and passing was back and we finally saw a bit more creativity again. Van Dijk as so often is the case looked ordinary before pulling out some clinical finishing proving once more that if we give him the right service he is absolutely lethal.

But the win was not the big news of the night as that was left to the crowd figure. For only the second time this season we topped the magic 10,000 mark as 11,530 patrons turned up for the match. While a profit wasn't made it was a desperately needed boost in crowd numbers. One that no doubt came on the back of attraction of seeing Robbie Fowler play.

By the looks of things we came through the match without any new injury concerns which is a massive bonus and Reinaldo is reportedly on the cusp of returning to the side. We head to the Central Coast this weekend and a result down there would be another massive fillip for us as we try to sneak a spot in the top six.

W-League Set For Huge Climax

Next week sees the grand final of the second season of the Westfield W-League. Promoters of the league will have breathed a huge sigh of relief this afternoon as the two semi-finals reached the conclusion. The league's top two sides, Sydney FC and defending champions Brisbane Roar won through to the final event.

Sydney did it with relative ease by beating last year's grand finalist Canberra United 3:0. The win came despite losing defender Alesha Clifford to a straight red card just thirteen minutes into the game when she pulled down a goal bound Ashleigh Sykes. Despite their numerical advantage Canberra were not able to capitalise and goals to Sarah Walsh, Leena Khamis and Heather Garriock put Sydney through to their maiden grand final.

The Roar did it much tougher with a hard fought win over Central Coast Mariners. The match was a really even tussle with both sides struggling to gain the upper hand. It was shaping up as one of those matches that would be won by either a moment of sheer brilliance or lost by a monumental blunder. In fact it was a blend of the two that saw the match turn when a Karla Reuter free kick dipped over the Mariners' Jill Loyden for the match winning goal. It would have been a bitter pill for Loyden who was otherwise outstanding in the match. However within ten minutes of taking the lead the Roar were reduced to just ten players when Sasha McDonnell stupidly picked up her second yellow card. Thankfully the Roar girls were able to hold out the Mariners and book a place in their second consecutive grand final.

So next Saturday Sydney will take on Brisbane in the grand final in what should hopefully be a top contest. It should be good game and hopefully the Roar girls can do us all a favour and pick up what will be the club's only piece of silverware for the season.

All Aboard For Ange's Football Revolution

Last night at Suncorp Stadium we witnessed the Ange Postecoglou football revolution in full flight. We've all heard his bold statements over recent weeks about playing attacking football, making Suncorp a fortress and how the players need to shape up or ship out. Having viewed the fruits of Ange's labour over recent weeks I can safely say that it is time for Ange to fuck the hell off.

Last night's match was shit and was fittingly matched by the result, a 0:1 loss. In the final third the Roar players lacked the bottle to take the responsibility to score onto their own shoulders and the number of woeful choices taken by our players highlighted the monumental blunder that Postecoglou committed by allowing Charlie Miller to walk away from the club. His skill, composure, vision and passing were all sadly missed in a team that largely lacked any cohesion in the final third.

Postecoglou continues to persist with his idiotic back three and it was this formation that allowed Matthew Leckie the space to attack into and set up Adelaide's match winning goal which was headed home by Fabian Barbiero. The use of Henrique as a striker rather than an out and out winger is killing the little Brazilian's game and all too often he was taking the ball with his back to goal or trying to fight for balls in the air. The continued use of the woefully inept Andrew Packer defies any logic as 99% of what he did turned into a steaming pile of excrement. The performance was topped off by a shocker by Mitch Nichols who is clearly struggling with the pressure of filling the void left by Charlie Miller.

The only highlights in the game were the performances of Craig Moore who was outstanding and David Dodd who put in a good showing. In fact we noticed last night that the Den actually have a David Dodd song now. Who would have thought. The only other highlight was the return of the much missed Massimo Murdocca and the little midfielder almost grabbed the Roar an equaliser with a shot from outside the box that forced Eugene Galekovic to produce an outstanding save.

At the end of the day though we lost at home again, and we did it in front of yet another record low crowd. Our new low is now just 5801, proving that the heady days of mid-teen attendances are now just a dim, dark memory. It's a sign of just how bad things are at the Roar. There was clearly a lot of bad feeling amongst the fans over recent events and there were plenty of cries of 'bring back Charlie' and 'bring back Frank'. The fans are not sold on Postecoglou as a coach and justifiably so given recent performances. Under his leadership the club has slid down the table and two players have sought releases from the club with rumours that more will follow. The players are clearly confused about their roles and and struggling to make Postecoglou's system work.

When Postecoglou took over the Roar the team was in sixth place and hanging on to a place in the finals despite a horror injury toll. He needed to do a number of things. One was work to get players back to fitness as quickly as possible, this has happened but ongoing injuries have kept occurring. Regardless, he has had better depth available to him than Farina did. Secondly he needed to ensure that the playing group was settled and motivated despite the changes that have occurred around them. Sadly this has not happened and he has displayed zero man management skills with his heavy handed approach to the players, a situation the is now robbing the club of some of it's most talented players. Thirdly he needed to address the Roar's problems at the back where too many easy goals were being conceded. Maybe there are slightly less goals going in now but the reality is that the problem itself has not gone away. Finally he had to address the old problem of the Roar not scoring enough. We can safely say that no headway has been made in this area and the problem has been merely exacerbated by the forcing out of the club of Miller.

The reality is that Postecoglou is failing dismally in his role as coach of the Roar. He took over a club that was in sixth place and has pushed them down to ninth. We win less, draw less and lose more under him. We have seen our goals per game average drop and the only statistic that has improved is goals conceded. But considering we are losing more often, does that really matter?

Where we go from here, I just don't know. We should get some players back in the next week or so with Tommy Oar, Matt McKay, Reinaldo and Ivan Franjic almost ready to join Massimo Murdocca on the comeback trail. But even with those players coming in I'm not sure the team will be able to lift. The team just has that look about them that you see when a club is totally broken. I've seen it before with the likes of Leeds United and Newcastle United in the EPL.

On Wednesday night the North Queensland Fury take on the Roar at Suncorp Stadium and with Robbie Fowler visiting this should have been an excellent chance for a big crowd. But after last night's crowd I can't see it being much bigger, and I certainly can't see the match result being any better.

Hope This Isn't The Way Ahead

Brisbane Roar scrambled to a 1:1 draw with Perth Glory at Members Equity Stadium this afternoon. While it may have been a point won on the road it will have done little to encourage Roar fans that the club is on any sort of upward swing. Postecoglou's tactics saw the Roar sitting deep in defence as they conceded possession and field position to their opponents. As such it was more down to disappointing attack from the Glory than stellar defending from the Roar that the honours were shared in this match.

Once again the Roar chose to play a 3-5-2 formation and were largely raped down the flanks for the entirety of the game as a result. Perth time and time again made their inroads in behind the wide midfielders and it was only by good fortune that they did not make better weather of the advantage that they were gaining in these areas. The Roar were showing no signs of wanting to play proactive football and sat deeper and deeper as Perth attacked them. The pressure on the Roar was compounded by their insistence on hoofing the ball clear and immediately turning over possession again so that they could come under fire once more. Griffin Mcmaster was forced to make a couple of saves to keep us in the match and only good fortune saw us level at the break.

The second half looked a bit rosier for the Roar when just six minutes in Luke Devere grabbed his first A-League goal after sliding in to top home a header from Josh McCloughan at a corner. But things began to turn a little south for the visitors with first Tommy Oar and then Devere replaced with injuries. Regardless the Roar were doing a good job of keeping the pressure on Perth with David Dodd and Adam Sarota putting in strong performances in the centre of the park. However as the half wore on Perth began to get more and more out of the play and twelve minutes to play they finally capitalised on one of their raids in a wide area. Substitute Todd Howarth whipped in a cross which Adriano Pellegrino headed down for Jamie Harnwell to strike home. Both sides had late chances to snatch all three of the points but were not able to complete the job.

Tactically this was a massively disappointing game from the Roar. This 3-5-2 formation that Postecoglou is using now, and seems to intend to use going forward, is a joke. Perth really exploited us out wide unlike Wellington last week and as a result out wide men get dragged well back leaving Van Dijk totally isolated up front. Defensively we sat so deep it was embarrassing and this left us unable to do anything other than try to hang on grimly as Perth attempted to pummel us. If this is the future of football at the Roar then we may as well pack up and move to Perry Park because nobody will want to come out and watch this shit.

Again injuries have raised their head and concerns over Oar and Devere can now be added to those of McKay, Reinaldo, Franjic and Tiatto. Luckilly Michael Zullo made a positive return from injury and Luke Brattan was handed an A-League debut.

Next weekend we host the totally out of form Adelaide United. I certainly hope we put in a more positive performances than what we saw this evening.

Roar Ladies Finish Third

In a season where everything around Brisbane Roar has turned to shit even the club's powerhouse W-League team could not avoid the curse that surrounds the club. Despite dominating the early part of the W-League's short season the ladies lost their way over the final rounds and relinquished any chance of defending their premiership with a loss to Perth in the penultimate round. Going into yesterday's final round the girls could only hope to finish as high as second and when Sydney dispatched the Mariners a 6:0 win by the Roar over Newcastle became a moot point. It was a great result from the girls over the struggling Jets, who amassed just two points all season to prop up the bottom of the table, and hopefully sends them into the finals series chock full of confidence again.

Roar captain, Clare Polkinghorne, got the ladies off to a flying start scoring after just two minutes. The match was put beyond doubt over the course of the next hour as Tameka Butt grabbed a hat trick with girls in the 19th, 26th and 66th minutes. The rout was completed by late goals from Joanne Burgess and Lana Harch.

In the other matches Sydney beat the Mariners 1:0, Canberra beat Adelaide 3:0 to grab a finals berth from Melbourne who threw their chance away with a 0:2 loss to Perth.

Next weekend sees the finals series begin and with it the Roar's chance to defend their Championship title. Saturday sees Sydney host Canberra United at Toyota Stadium, while Sunday will see the Mariners host the Roar at Bluetongue Stadium. Both semi-finals will be telecast on the ABC.

Hopefully the Roar will knock off the Mariners and set up a grand final appearance against Sydney which should make for an interesting contest.