Still Roaring Despite Defence
While the focus this week in the football community has been about the off-field circumstances surrounding the Phoenix, on the field they did a good job of exposing Brisbane’s defensive vulnerabilities.
The Wellington game showed that while Brisbane’s attacking game is getting back to it’s fluent best, defensively they can be exposed, both on the counter and with attacks from the full-back areas.
For the second goal Wellington managed to catch Brisbane out on the break, creating a 2v2 chance which Krishna took, before a cross from the right exposed poor marking at the back post for the winner.
With that in mind, it comes as little surprise when Ross Aloisi was overheard giving the defenders some strong and harsh words in training, given defending in the full back areas especially has been a real weakness for the Roar in the opening three weeks of the competition.
With Adelaide’s threat in wide areas from the likes of Sanchez, Elrich, Goodwin and Cirio it’s a tactic which Guillermo Amor may look to replicate this time around.
On the positive side, the performance on Saturday of Dimitri Petratos was particularly encouraging with his attacking movement from midfield adding an extra dimension to the Brisbane attack, while for the third time already this season they capitalised on the dead ball expertise of Corona.
Looking ahead to this weekends encounter, Brisbane will be looking to bounce back against an Adelaide side who will be desperate for the three points having failed to win in the opening three rounds.
Last week they were caught out on the counter by the Glory, however they are likely to face a completely different challenge this time around.
Having scored just two goals this season, the Reds will be boosted by the return of striker Bruce Djite who they’ll look for to lead the line.
Brisbane will be boosted by the return of Shane Stefanutto from a calf injury, however they will still be without regular goalkeeper Michael Theo.
Another who is unavailable is new Spanish signing Javier Hervas, who is at least two weeks from making his debut. Earlier in the week Aloisi said that he wouldn’t be rushed into bring the midfielder in before he’s ready, with the original target of the round 6 home game against Perth still the target.
Meanwhile on Sunday the Roar W-League side take on Adelaide United and will be hoping to build on two wins from two to start the season.
Their cause will be boosted by the return of Matildas Katrina Gorry, Tameka Butt and Clare Polkinghorne who all missed the round 2 trip to Western Sydney.
They will however have to overcome a poor record at the Cleveland Showgrounds, with Brisbane winning just one of the five W-League games they’ve played at the venue, losing three.
Kick-off on Sunday is at 2.00pm.