Brisbane Roar Back Into Form

Roar celebrate

Brisbane Roar are back!

With the pressure having mounted after a five game losing streak Brisbane Roar mounted a withering ten minute burst in the middle of the match to wipe aside ailing former champions Melbourne Victory.  Suddenly after weeks of ponderous play the Roar burst back into attacking form with three goals that tore Victory apart.

Ange Postecoglou decided to switch things up a bit in a bid to break the team's losing streak and instigated a change in formation and personnel.  The typical 4-3-3 formation was changed to a 3-4-3 with Jurman, Smith and Adnan at the back.  This pushed fullbacks Stefanutto and Franjic into midfield alongside Paartalu and Brattan who was given a rare start as part of the reshuffle.  Nichols and Viscote played in advanced roles supporting Berisha.

The changes though looked like they might be backfiring when Brisbane went a goal down in just the third minute.  The bandwagon fans got what they wanted with Harry Kewell grabbing a goal from open play when he pounced on a mistake from Matt Smith and then got the better of Adnan.  But Brisbane settled into their play and began creating chances.  But it seemed that once again it may not be our night with Nichols striking the crossbar and having one saved along with Berisha.  Then only minutes from the break Roar finally found their mojo and an equaliser.  Nichols scored with a superb diving header off a Stefanutto cross to square things up and send Roar into the sheds with their confidence up

After some fireworks and the worst band in the history of the world, Brisbane charged out of the dressing rooms for the second half and proceeded to blow Victory off the park.  Berisha, who worked tirelessly all night, couldn't find his own goal but laid on two assists as the home side surged to a 3:1 lead.  First he played through Visconte who smashed one past Covic and then combined with Franjic to play in the fullback who calmly slotted one home to all but seal the result.  Victory tried to rally but some immense defending by Adnan helped keep them in check and Roar were finally back in the winner's circle.



It will be interesting to see if we stick with this 3-4-3 formation now or whether it is just a once off change that helped spur us into action.  Anyway it worked last night against Victory and I couldn't be happier to finally see us win again.  Franjic was back to his rampaging best last night and totally owned Fabio down Melbourne's left hand side.  Brattan and Visconte were good in their rare starts while Adnan again was a tower of strength at the back. Smith and Paartalu were inspired and Berisha proved yet again that he is the hardest working striker in the league.

Now we're off on the road with games against Perth and Adelaide before coming home again to play Sydney.  Perth and Adelaide have both been struggling so this is a good chance for Roar to get back on a bit of a roll with a couple more wins.

What really stunned me last night though was just how poor Victory are as a team.  They play no real football.  Most of their dangerous play came from balls knocked over the top for Kewell and Thompson to chase down.  Apart from those two plus Hernandez and Covic, they look like a team of journeymen.  Mehmet Durakovic doesn't really seem to installing any real style of play at the club.  Honestly I just can't see this team doing anything this season.  They sit sixth on the ladder and look like this season is just going to be a dogfight to try and scrape into the finals.

So 2011 has finished with a bang rather than a whimper for the Roar.  Here's hoping that 2012 continues the form shown last night.