Queensland Roar coach Frank Farina isn’t concerned by his side’s inability to get results but admits Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Adelaide United showed the importance of being able to kill off games.
The result represented a second straight draw to start the 2008/09 Hyundai A-League season and came despite a half-hour period either side of half-time in which the Roar created a multitude of chances.
In the end, Charlie Miller’s 47th minute strike was all the home side had to show for it, but Farina is confident the results will come.
“We’ve got to close those games out if we’re serious about doing something this year,” Farina said.
“When you’ve got them on the ropes like we had them, we have to do it. The danger, as Craig (Moore) said in the dressing room, is that you can cop one at the other end.”
“(But) we’re two points off top spot and we’ve played two games. It’s not a concern at the moment.”
“We’ve played some good football and we’ve just got to start getting results. You have your spells.”
Farina’s take on the game was that the visitors were perhaps lucky to take a point away from Suncorp Stadium but Adelaide United counterpart Aurelio Vidmar disagreed.
Vidmar said his side also had opportunities to earn three points and that United actually had the better of the final 30 minutes.
“There were chances at both ends. I’m sure Frank would have thought they had chances to win as well,” Vidmar said.
“I thought the last half hour was the best part of our football tonight. (When the Roar scored) I thought it was going to be a long 45 minutes, but the boys rallied well.”
“They really stood up when they had to – Angelo Costanzo, Eugene Galekovic and Travis Dodd. There were a lot of good performances.”
One particularly notable performance on the night came from Queensland skipper Moore, who was originally expected to miss the game with a knee injury sustained at training on Friday.
Moore passed a pre-match fitness test to take his place in the starting XI and, a 75th minute yellow card aside, did not put a foot wrong.
“I was training on Friday and took a little knock to the knee – a little twist,” Moore said.
“I managed to look after it for a couple of days and today I didn’t feel any problems there. I was desperate to play having missed the first league game.”
