Roar Seize Finals Advandtage

Henrique grabbed the opener

It's becoming a real rivalry between Brisbane Roar and Central Coast Mariners and it is being built on the back on a succession of big finals matches over the last couple of years.  Today's clash at Suncorp Stadium just another in this epic series of matches and Brisbane ran out victors 2-0.

Both sides went into the match at full strength but Graham Arnold pulled a small tweak to his starting line up opting to go with a 4-3-2-1 formation that saw both Mustafa Amini and Tom  Rogic playing in behind Bernie Ibini-Isei.  But it seemed that sticking to a working plan was the order of the day and the Roar took the ascendency in the opening half immediately slipping into their familiar passing game.  They looked set to take an early lead when Henrique won a penalty after a challenge from Josh Rose, but the little Brazilian saw his shot saved by Matt Ryan.  It took the winger just a minute to atone however and from the ensuing corner he poked home a loose ball from right in front.  From there the Roar dominated the opening half and it was just a number of outstanding saves from Ryan in the Mariners' goal that kept the visitors in the game.  The second half saw the Roar placed under more pressure but they kept their lead intact.  Late on Erik Paartalu rattled the crossbar with a powerful strike that could have put the match beyond doubt.  As with Henrique earlier in the match he was granted a second chance shortly after and he received a lay off from Broich after the German had danced around a number of defenders in the Mariners' box.  This time he drove it into the back of the net to put the match beyond doubt.

So that gives Brisbane a distinct advantage heading into the second leg next weekend in Gosford.  The Mariners have now had their hand forced and they must now go out and chase the game to reel in the deficit.  Rather than sit back and play us on the counter they are going to have to chase the game from the outset as they now need three goals to win this outright.  The Roar won't back away from the game and will no doubt go looking for a vital away goal that will put the match even further out of the reach of the Mariners.  All in all it shapes up as a another epic encounter in this burgeoning rivalry.

Off Field Signs Good For Roar

Brisbane Roar may not have defended its premiership title, but a narrow second placed finish behind the Mariners is a sign that a period of extended success is a genuine possibility for the club.  But it's not just it's on-field performance that will have the club's owners smiling.  At the end of the regular season the signs are good that Brisbane's performance on the field may be finally starting to reflect off it.

News out of the club today has shown significant growth in three key metrics over the last season.  Attendances, memberships and corporate sales have all shown great improvement over recent seasons.  Last season the club posted a regular season average attendance of 9,279.  This season has seen that figure leap 42% to 13,157.  The early seasons of the A-League saw the Roar post higher averages but this is the first time since 2008-2009 that the club has averaged over 10,000 and its the fourth best season average so far.  Weather hasn't been the kindest to the Roar even with many home games carrying the threat of rain.  It's a great result, albeit one that we would have loved to have seen gone higher, but it is certainly a sign that things are moving in the right direction again.

In addition to crowd averages the Roar have also seen a huge increase in the number of memberships.  In all over seasons the number of memberships sold was ridiculously low, but apparently this season they have leapt by 262%.  The fact that we now still have just 4,459 members shows just how low those numbers once were.  I'm sure that an off-season target will be to show another huge leap in these numbers.  I'd love to see that number double ahead of next season.

In other good news it seems our corporate sales have markedly increased as well with the club announcing a 211% increase over the course of the season.

With strong ownership now at the healm its great to see the club recovering in some of the areas off the pitch where they had lost ground over recent seasons.  It is certainly a sign that perhaps now the corner has been turned and we can begin growing season after season.

Late Strike Nabs Derby Delight

Lambadaaridis celebrates his stunning winner

Brisbane Roar rounded out its 2011-2012 A-League campaign with late win over local rivals Gold Coast United.  In what was most likely the last ever instalment of the derby both sides had little but pride to play for.  Earlier in the day the Central Coast Mariners wrapped up the premiership with a win in Wellington leaving Roar unable to knock them off top spot, meanwhile the Gold Coast were already consigned to the bottom of the table after Adelaide United grabbed a point against Melbourne Heart on Friday night.

Faced with a dead rubber Ange Postecoglou took the opportunity to rest a number of key players and give some of his younger team members a run.  Youth team defender James Donachie was the bolter, making a start in the heart of the Roar defence while Andrew Redmayne, Luke Brattan, Jack Hingert and Kofi Danning also got starts.

Despite the reshuffled line up the Roar looked very much to be business as usual as they slipped into their familiar pattern of passing and movement.  But against a defence that was sitting back deep it was hard to prise GCU open and as has often been the tale, the Roar were hit on the counter attack.  Former Brisbane youth defender Daniel Bowles raced onto a long ball over the top and blasted a shot past Redmayne to give the home side a first half lead.  Brisbane brought Nick Fitzgerald in for Kofi Danning at the break and after a number of near misses the move worked its magic with the young winger grabbing a well taken goal to square the ledger.  Brisbane kept pushing for the win and Berisha should have found it when he bizarrely skied a shot from point blank range over the cross bar.  With the match seemingly destined for a draw despite the efforts of both sides it was second half substitute George Lambadaridis who grabbed the headlines with a sublime curling shot from outside the box that flew past Jerrad Tyson to send the three points back to Brisbane.

So ultimately Brisbane rounded out their season with a win and finish just two points short of Central Coast Mariners in their bid to defend their premiership title.  Ultimately they will look back to that that costly five game run mid-season where they sunk into a losing streak and think about what might have been.  Attention now turns to the semi-finals and Brisbane will host Central Coast Mariners next Saturday in the first leg to see who makes it into the grand final.

What was most satisfying out of tonight's game was the performance of our youngsters.  Both Lamabadaridis and Fitzgerald grabbed us vital goals and James Donachie was very good in his debut.  It's a good sign that what is coming out of our youth set up is more than good enough to transition into the senior team.

Roar Get First ACL Point

Nichols heads home a landmark goal

On a freezing night in Beijing, Brisbane Roar notched a couple of landmarks with its first goal and first point in the ACL.  Mitch Nichols was the player who etched his name in the record books when he found the back of the net with a first half header.  The goal was enough to earn Roar a point on the road as they pulled back an early deficit with Nichols' goal to draw 1-1 with Beijing Gouan.

Ange Postecoglou was able to field his strongest possible line up with Mohamad Adnan, Shane Stefanutto and Massimo Murdocca restored to the starting side in place of Jack Hingert, Matt Jurman and Issey Nakajima-Farran.  The Roar got off to another tentative start and quickly found themselves a goal down when Beijing found space in behind Ivan Franjic and Piang Cheng beat Michael Theoklitos on his near post.  It was a disappointing start but Roar buckled down and quickly fought their way back into the game.  It wasn't long before they were creating their own chances, however converting them seemed to another issue altogether. Henrique twice wasted good chances in the first half and Besart Berisha on the stretch managed to sky a close range shot over the bar.  But Nichols rose to the occasion and met a Franjic cross with a well placed header to put the sides back on level terms.

Having held the upper hand for much of the first half Roar found the second stanza much tougher going.  Beijing really turned up the intensity and turned the match into a real end to end affair by winning a lot of ball in midfield.  It put Roar under a ton of pressure but they were able to hold out and grab a share of the points.

The result keeps the Roar in touch with group leaders FC Tokyo and Ulsan Hyundai who drew in Tokyo.  Brisbane's next match will see them travel to Ulsan.

Gold Coast Fans Vote With Their Feet

Gold Coast United's first home fixture since the departure of Clive Palmer was always going to be an acid test of whether the club has a future.  While they won on the scoreboard any hope of an improvement in crowds sadly didn't come to pass.  The Fox Sports images spoke volumes as once again a match took place at a desolate Skilled Park.  Post match it was announced that issues with turnstiles prevented an accurate crowd number but the FFA match report estimated it at around 2000.  A number that all but condemns the club to being a footnote to the history of the A-League.

Since Palmer was dispatched by the FFA there has been plenty of talk about whether the club has a future.  The FFA has apparently had talks with possible investors but at the end of the day I can't see anyone chucking money into a club if nobody is going to turn up.  And that was the story today.  Regardless of any sentimentality or rhetoric today was the day when football fans really needed to show that they wanted a club in the area.  But its clear that there is no interest and the FFA needs to concentrate on other areas now to get a tenth team into this league.

Gold Coast United has had it's day.  Maybe the Palmer influence just tainted the club too much but for now there is no way anybody can justify having a club on the Gold Coast.

A-League Set For Thrilling Final Weekend

The league portion of season 2011-2012 of the Hyundai A-League is set for a thrilling conclusion next weekend.  At the top of the table Brisbane Roar and Central Coast Mariners will be battling it out for the premiership after both sides recorded wins this weekend.  At the foot of the table its now a battle between Adelaide United and Gold Coast United for the wooden spoon after the boys from coast threw a cat amongst the pigeons with an upset 3-0 win over Perth Glory.  In mid-table Melbourne Heart, Newcastle Jets and  Sydney FC will battle it out for the last two spots in the finals series.  Ahead of them Perth Glory and Wellington Phoenix are battling for third place which may be key down the track when it comes to qualifying for the ACL if Australia keeps it current three team allocation.  That leaves just one team, Melbourne Victory, with absolutely nothing to play for.

The penultimate weekend kicked off with Victory causing a shock by upsetting the high flying Phoenix.  Victory stormed home to a 3-0 win with Carlos Hernandez and James Jeggo both scoring long range screamers.  Isaka Cernak rounded out the win with a goal.  The result was a massive upset and suggests that Victory found it a lot easier to play with all the pressure off.  Victory also got its first sign of promising youngster Julius Doe Davis and the former Bayern Munich youth team member put in a promising ten minute cameo.

Saturday saw the rare occurrence of two games being played at the same time and it made for an exciting afternoon with the Mariners and Roar both chasing wins at the same time.  The Mariners got theirs courtesy of a Bernie Ibini-Isei goal to stay at the top of the premiership.  Just down the road the Roar played out a thrilling match with the Jets and scraped home 2-1.  It was a match that had a bit of everything.  Besart Berisha scored early to put the visitors in front and on a personal level equal Shane Smeltz's league record of 19 goals.  But wasteful finishing from himself, Henrique and Issey Nakajima-Farran kept the Jets in the match.  Things looked to be imploding for the Roar when Berisha and Issey had a running battle of words in the latter stages of the first half and Ali Abbas whipped home a free kick to send the sides to the break on equal terms.  Roar looked like they might steal the win when Jack Hingert was brought down by Tiago and Henrique stepped up to take the penalty.  But his tame shot was easily saved and it looked like a win might elude the defending champions.  The premiership seemed to be within reach for the Mariners as a draw looked more and more likely but Tiago amazingly conceded a second penalty late on and this time Mitch Nichols stepped up and made sure of the win.

Saturday was rounded out by another crazy match with Melbourne Heart and Sydney playing out a thrilling 2-2 draw.  Heart looked to be cruising to a win after goals to Mate Dugandzic and Eli Babalj in the first half.  But Sydney stormed back to take a draw after a second half brace to Shannon Cole.  The weekend was rounded out by a massive upset win to Gold Coast United, who beat Perth Glory 3-0.  James Brown came off the bench to score a brace in the second half to seal the win after Zac Anderson gave the home side an early lead.  Perth's woes were compounded in the first half with Dean Heffernan receiving a red card.

Sadly we won't see every game kick off at exactly the same time this weekend so that will take a bit of gloss and excitement off things.  But Adelaide will have an early chance to avoid the wooden spoon when they take on Heart on Friday night.  A draw will be good enough for the Reds to stay off the bottom of the ladder.  Heart have the easiest job of the teams vying for the last of the finals spots.  The only way they can miss out is if they get flogged by eight goals and there is a draw between Newcastle and Sydney on Sunday. Those two sides will know exactly what they have to do in this game and will be going for a win in a match that is clearly winner takes all for both of them.

Saturday sees Victory take on Perth and the sand gropers will be looking to restore order after this weekends massive screw up on the Gold Coast.

The Mariners get first crack at wrapping up the premiership when they take on the Phoenix in Wellington.  Only a win will ensure that the Mariners can wrap up the premiership and they will play this match on the back of a mid-week ACL fixture against Nagoya Grampus.  So that brings us to the final game of the weekend where Brisbane Roar may be going for the premiership if the Nix do the right thing and beat or draw with the Mariners.  A win away to local rivals Gold Coast will be what the Roar are chasing and nothing else is good enough for them.  It won't be an easy game with Brisbane having to back up from a midweek trip to Beijing and Gold Coast playing what is almost certainly their last game.

It's all set for a thrilling weekend and hopefully we'll get all the results go the right way to keep it as interesting as possible.  By the end of the weekend we may actually see a club repeat as premiers for the first time.

Come on you Roar!

A Most Costly Draw For Roar

Brattan in pain after injury his knee

Sunday afternoons should be a time of rest and relaxation, but Brisbane Roar were back in action at Suncorp Stadium again with Adelaide United their opponent.  It was shaping as a crucial fixture for the home side as they took on the struggling Reds and a chance to top the league stood within their grasp.  The Suncorp pitch was showing some wear and tear after a heavy schedule over the last week but it was certainly good enough for Roar to weave their magic.

Mitch Nichols was still absent with his groin injury while Massimo Murdocca failed to back up from the Tokyo game after picking up a shoulder injury.  Luke Brattan was granted a rare start in midfield while Issey Nakajima-Farran started in place of the suspended Henrique.  Adelaide, who were backing up from a successful champions league trip to Uzbekistan, were without Sergio Van Dijk and Eugene Galekovic.

Brisbane got off to a lively start in the match and quickly had the visitors on the back foot, but they were struggling to create clear cut chances.  The majority of the action in the Adelaide penalty box was coming from set pieces as Roar piled on the pressure.  That was until Adelaide mounted a rare counter attack which saw Iain Ramsey hammer home the opening goal of the match completely against the run of play.  From there things began to go a little pear shaped for the hosts.  Luke Brattan landed awkwardly and was stretchered off with a knee injury.  Erik Paartalu lost all positional awareness and passing direction.  The Roar machine began creaking more and more and things were not looking good.  Somewhere along the way in the second half Roar finally began creating chances but taking them was proving to be a much tougher issue.  Thomas Broich spurned chance after chance and Besart Berisha was struggling to get a clean shot at goal.  Lady luck finally smiled on Roar when they pounced on a loose Adelaide pass and Kofi Danning showed excellent pace and a precision pass to set up Berisha for the equaliser.  But that was as lucky as Roar were to get and on a day where the officials had show little sense of justice for the home side they were denied in the most cruel manner late on.  Bratten's replacement, Rocky Visconte, skipped passed Anthony Golec in the penalty box and copped a foot square on the side of his ankle for his trouble.  Unbelievably no penalty was awarded and to rub further salt into the wounds of the home side Roar Visconte was the second player stretchered off the day.

Visconte, post Golec

It was a tough day at the office for Brisbane.  They spurned so many chances that should have seen them easily win this match.  They came away with a point that narrowed the gap to the Mariners marginally, something that was of increased importance after Perth beat them in Adelaide a couple of hours later.  But the confidence must be dented after a less than clinical performance all over the park and the injuries will be a large concern for Ange Postecoglou.

Next up we face Newcastle in what is always a tough fixture for us.  We still have a chance to win the premiership particularly with the Mariners limping home badly.  But we need to improve our performances and start doing all the little things better.  Henrique will be back for the next game and the performances of Issey and Danning will have given Postecoglou some heart.  But the centre of midfield looks and issue.  Paartalu had his worst ever game for us and really needs to rectify that next game.  Hopefully Nichols is back from injury otherwise we're going to have a pretty makeshift midfield in the next game.

The premiership is still a chance, but not if we turn in any more performances like that.

Tokyo Boys Shock Roar

Roar learn a Tokyo lesson

On a very wet Tuesday night I went and watched Brisbane Roar make their debut in the Asian Champion's League.  Despite being on the wrong end of a two goal defeat it was still a great night out. A crowd in excess of twelve thousand in the rain suggests that mid-week ACL games are a very viable option in Brisbane and the atmosphere provided by the travelling Tokyo fans was excellent.  FC Tokyo themselves played a great game and were the better side and deserved victors on the night.  While Brisbane would obviously have been disappointed with the game they should not be disheartened and should look to learn from the game.

History tells us that Australian sides have struggled on the whole against Japanese teams in this tournament.  Out of nineteen encounters Australian teams have just won three games and lost a massive eleven.  Some of those defeats have also seen the scorelines blow out far worse than the one the other night.

Tokyo played well across the board while Brisbane had a number of players who were sub-par, and Thomas Broich was well contained by heavy marking.  What we need to take from this is that despite the recent improvement in standard of play in the A-League that Brisbane has been at the forefront of, there is still a big gap to what we are seeing from the Japanese teams, and possibly the Koreans.  It was notable that the impressive Gamba Osaka outfit was heavily beaten on the opening day by Pohang Steelers.

It was niaive of all to think that Brisbane would waltz through the group phase.  But I still don't think that we will be embarrassed either as some Australian teams have been in the past.  The important thing is that we keep learning from these games.  Number one we need to move the ball faster and take less touches.  Number two we need to attack players one on one out wide more often.  Number three we need our fullbacks to be able to match opposition wingers for pace.

So there's no need to panic at all. If we don't do well then this tournament will still be a valuable learning experience as we measure ourselves against top Asian clubs and identify areas of improvement.

Roar And Heart Draw

Nichols scored but injured

One could almost have been forgiven for forgetting all about the actual football thanks to Clive Palmer's moronic carry on in the past week.  Thankfully though the game is back in action and we can at least focus on the onfield action for a few days.  With the first round of legal action raging in the Queensland Supreme Court just up the road at Suncorp Stadium the real game was in action with Brisbane Roar taking on Melbourne Heart.

Brisbane welcomed back Thomas Broich from injury but were without the suspended Henrique in a match where a win would see them at least temporarily hit the top of the table.  The match was equally as crucial for the Heart who are in a real battle to sure up a spot in the finals and a win for them would see them put some distance between themselves and the chasing pack.

The first half of the match was played at a really impressive tempo but it was Roar who had the better of it.  Their pressure paid off in the 33rd minute when a poor clearance fell to him and he fired a shot past Clint Bolton.  However joy quickly turned to sorrow when Nichols pulled up lame a few minutes later and had to be substituted.  After the break the Heart came out firing and really took the game to Brisbane.  They quickly grabbed an equaliser when a Curtis Good header found the back of the net at a corner.  Both sides relied on the keepers to avoid conceding further but Roar were ultimately unlucky not to take the three points in the end. They were amazingly denied a stone cold penalty late in the half but finally won one with seconds to go when Simon Colosimo felled Besart Berisha.  Mohamad Adnan stepped up to take the shot but he saw it saved by Bolton and the match finished level.

Brisbane's focus will now turn to Tuesday night's ACL game against FC Tokyo before they take on Adelaide United next weekend.

QSC Face Palms Palmer

So Clive Palmer's first attempts at legal action against the FFA have hit a nasty hurdle in the shape of Justice Jean Dalton.  In the Supreme Court of Queensland this evening Justice Dalton refused Clive Palmer's application for an injunction to prevent FFA from taking control of Gold Coast United.  Justice Dalton ruled that Palmer's comments and behaviour had clearly made it impossible for him and the FFA to work together and had been damaging to the game.  The matter will now proceed to a full hearing on Wednesday.

So that leaves the FFA in control of the club and players will sign contracts with the FFA for the remainder of the season.  However coach Mike Mulvey has apparently refused to sign an FFA contract and will play no further part in the club.  Matildas coach Tom Sermanni has been brought in by the FFA to oversee the remainder of the season.  Gold Coast United will play Wellington Phoenix in Wellington on Sunday.

Adelaide CEO Ridicules Palmer's New Body

Perth Glory's Tony Sage had already distanced himself from Clive Palmer's Football Australia and another club has now added its voice in decrying the organization.  Adelaide United CEO Greg Griffin has slammed Palmer's brainchild in the Adelaide Advertiser.

I know nothing about it.  It's a complete nonsense and a waste of everyone's time.  It will fade as quickly as it has risen.  What a stupid and mindless entity and not even the dumbest of dumb would take this entity seriously

That is a pretty damning assessment and it looks like Adelaide United are now seriously looking to distance themselves from Palmer and his antics.

In another blow to Palmer it is believed that the Gold Coast United playing staff had agreed to sign contracts with the FFA for the remainder of the season.

Buckley Laughs At Palmer

OK so a further update to the FFA's response to Clive Palmer's announcement that he had set up some sort of body to do something but none of us are really sure what the hell that is yet.  Ben Buckley tonight appeared on Fox Sports News to further respond to the news.  Here's the video.



To sum up Buckley scoffed at what Palmer was doing and questioned whether they understood the need to be sanctioned by the higher governing bodies of the AFC and FIFA.  He re-iterated the focus of the FFA on getting the match against Wellington on Sunday played.  He also indicated that the FFA was taking legal advice in regard to Palmer's comments about the way the FFA conducted the World Cup bid.  Finally also indicated that the other owners were distancing themselves from Palmer's latest stunt and that comment could be expected from them in Friday's press.

But the biggest news in this was Buckley outlining how Palmer had earlier approached FFA in a bid to pull out of the club.

Perth owner Tony Sage has already publicly shunned Palmer's breakaway group and urged both sides to sort out their issues quickly for the good of the game.  The AFC has also publicly thrown its support behind the FFA.

Friday will see the first instalment of legal proceedings with Palmer seeking an injunction against the FFA's revocation of his licence.  We will see how that turns out but regardless of the outcome I'm sure that Palmer has many more plans up his sleeve for disrupting the remainder of the season.

And Then Insanity Broke Out

You have to be careful not to turn your back for too long in Australian soccer because you never know just what might happen when you aren't looking.

Yesterday afternoon the news broke that the FFA had revoked Clive Palmer's licence for Gold Coast United.  I was just about to head off for a few cooling ales which turned into a decent sized session at a quiz night.  As a result I didn't get a chance to post about this news and was planning to do so tonight.  I knew some sort of totally stupid response would come from Clive Palmer and this afternoon we saw it and the magnitude of it was astounding.  It was always a given that legal proceedings would begin and apparently that is the case, but when Palmer held a press conference this afternoon he announced that he intended to... well he announced something, its just that nobody seems sure what it was.

Apparently the press release that came out just prior to the press conference stated that Palmer was setting up Football Australia as a rival governing body to the FFA.  But somewhere along the way in the press conference that charter changed to being a lobby group for football against FFA.  So at the end of the day your guess is as good as mine as to what the fuck Football Australia is.

What we do know is that he has installed Archie 'chip on my shoulder because the FFA sacked me for being crap' Fraser as the CEO.

The FFA responded this evening with Ben Buckley effectively refusing to dignify the announcement of Football Australia with a response due to the total stupidity of the concept.  The FFA will focus however on the getting the remaining Gold Coast fixtures played out and ensuring the players wages are covered.  Though Palmer has stated that he will honour all contracts but given what he has done in the past, i.e. Peter Perchtold and Robson, I would be taking that with a grain of salt.

So things have taken a decidedly bizarre twist now.  I've got no doubt that there will be support for Palmer, you only have to look at Pauline Hanson to see that any nutter can attract at least some support.  What is key here is for the FFA to move forward with a clear direction focussing on a number of key things.

1. Getting this season finished with Gold Coast games played out properly so that the integrity of the competition is not compromised.
2. Players at Gold Coast are not only paid their wages but any undergoing treatment for injuries are also looked after by the FFA.
3. Using the remaining Gold Coast home games as a test bed to gauge support for continuation of A-League football there.
4. Exhaust all avenues to ensure a ten team league next season be that with a team on the Gold Coast or one in a new location such as Western Sydney.
5. If there will be no team on the Gold Coast then a legacy must be left there.  My suggestion would be the FFA working with the local community to keep a team in the National Youth League.  This is something they should have done with North Queensland as well and is probably something they should pursue now as a retrospective action.
6. A post season agenda of rework to the A-League's operational model to ensure the club's concerns are addressed as much as possible.

For now it seems that all bets are off as to what the next step will be.  Palmer is a loose cannon and I would say anything is possible now.