With 87 minutes played at home and leading by a goal to the good it seemed almost inevitable that Brisbane Roar were careering towards a win that would kickstart their 17/18 A-League season.
A resilient Adelaide United thought otherwise as they rallied to claw themselves firstly back into the game after dominating most of the Round 2 fixture, but then to also to find a 92nd minute winner that silenced a Brisbane crowd so accustomed to their Roar storming home late in countless matches to steal wins and points away from travelling sides.
It was more than a smash and grab type performance however, this was a side that simply outran their opposition both with superior fitness and hunger.
Brisbane head coach John Aloisi attempted to put a lid on the brewing issue post-match by playing down the significance of Adelaide’s prolonged intensity.
“Their fitness, it’s a bit of a myth ok,” he said.
“They came home strong because we’ve got players that still aren’t at a level of fitness because we’ve had a disruptive pre-season.
“Of course they’re going to talk about their fitness because they ended up scoring two late goals in the last five minutes.”
An early second-half opportunity following a lack of composure from Adelaide gloveman Paul Izzo should’ve been buried by Nicholas D’Agostino who had two bites at the cherry from point blank to give his side a much needed two-goal buffer.
From that point on it was Adelaide with all the ascendancy bombarding Michael Theo and his defensive area with cross after cross as pressure mounted on a tiring Brisbane outfit.
Ryan Kitto’s equaliser exemplified the disparity in energy between the two sides with his fortuitous link-up play with Baba Diawara fielding little to no defensive attention in Brisbane’s box as he smashed home his close-range effort.
The concern with the Roar is, yes, they may have a had a disruptive pre-season as Aloisi alluded to but how long can you attribute this to a club’s results into a season.
We are still yet to hear any recent news regarding the French signing Eric Bauthaec and this must concern Aloisi far greater than anyone else who requires the quality of Bauthaec sooner rather than later.
Still, Aloisi remains buoyant in his body language, persona and fight for his players despite the less than ideal start to the Roar’s season.
“It’s disappointing not to win, it’s disappointing to now have two losses in a row,” said Aloisi.
“But there’s one thing we can do, we can either roll over and feel sorry for ourselves or we can fight and make sure that we’re ready for the next game.
“I know what I’m going to do so I expect my players to fight as well.”
Enjoy this content? Support The Football Sack
Due in part to COVID and lack of current sponsorship we are at risk of not having the funds to continue running The Football Sack. If you enjoy our content and support our work in training talented young writers, please support us with a donation. If every reader contributed just $3, our funding would be covered for over ten years.
| DONATE |
