Roar Review | Home Sweet Home
After a reasonably successful month on the road Brisbane return home for the festive period with a pair of home games, the first is a massive fixture at home to Melbourne City.
Brisbane left it late to pick up the points in Gosford on Sunday with a late goal from substitute Dimitri Petratos gave Brisbane back to back wins for the first time since the opening weeks of the season.
Brisbane controlled a lot of the game against a defensively minded Mariners side, however they were unable to convert their good play into goalscoring opportunities with just five shots on target despite having nearly 65% of possession.
This weekend however figures to be a much stiffer test with a 2nd v 3rd clash on Sunday evening against Melbourne City. When these two sides met in round 7 the two sides played out a 1-1 draw with John Aloisi accusing his former side of playing anti-football in the aftermath.
Since then City have gone on to become the leagues inform team, scoring 16 goals while the Roar have gone on the road and returned with 7 points from 12 to cement themselves in the A-Leagues top two.
With Thomas Broich, Jamie Maclaren and Henrique on one side, along with Aaron Mooy, Harry Novillo and Bruno Fornaroli on the other, this game has the making of an entertaining, high scoring affair befitting two sides who enter the round in the competitions top 3.
In the National Youth League Brisbane Roar have recorded the biggest ever win in the completion with a thumping 10-0 win over Adelaide United in Cleveland on Saturday. Five goals to young striker Harrison Sawyer, a Devante Clut hat-trick and goals from Nicholas D’Agostino and Jesse Daley rounded out the scorers in a one sided contest which saw three penalties awarded to the home side.
The result sees Brisbane move up to third on the NYL Conference A table, three points behind United; however the Roar have a game in hand on both the Reds and second placed Melbourne City which could see them go top.
Up next for the Roar following a week off over the Christmas period is a home game against Perth Glory who sit bottom of the conference on January 3rd at Cleveland Showgrounds.
In the W-League, the Roar ladies returned to form with a first win since round two as they defeated Sydney FC in Gosford on Sunday 3-0. Goals from Tameka Butt, Clare Polkinghorne and an Alannah Kennedy own goal were enough for the visitors to pick up a much needed three points.
Brisbane, who sit 7th, 3 points behind 4th placed Adelaide with four games to play now host the unbeaten league leading Melbourne City on Monday afternoon at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast as they look to make a late season surge.
Finally, congratulations is in store for Brisbane trio James Donachie, Brandon Borrello and Jamie Maclaren who will be apart of the Australian side aiming to qualify for next years Olympic Games.
The Olyroos will need to navigate a group consisting of UAE, Jordan and Vietnam before finishing no worse than third in the tournament overall to book one of the spots in next Augusts Games. The trio will miss the majority of the games in January which will give John Aloisi an interesting selection dilemma in the New Year.
More on that in future weeks, for now though Merry Christmas to all the readers, enjoy the holidays and we’ll be back in the New Year as the A-League moves into the second half of the season.
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