Gold Coast United coach Miron Bleiberg has joked that his team has brought happiness to the Hyundai A-League by registering its first ever loss, going down to the Jets 1-0 in their Round 4 encounter in Newcastle.
United dominated possession but was unable to break through a smothering Newcastle defensive side that attacked intelligently on the counter to snatch the win courtesy of a 40-minute strike from Sean Rooney.
“I think we were better,” a resilient Bleiberg said after the match. “We attacked more, I don’t know what the possession stats were, but we played to our strengths and it wasn’t good enough today.”
“They played to their strengths, they scored the goal against the run of play and they defended well and they made the right subs. They fought hard and in the end they won 1-0. It has happened so many times in football.”
“We play our game but not as good as well usually play. In the second half we started to improve and move the ball. But at the end of the day we couldn’t penetrate and we couldn’t break their defence and that is why we lost the game.”
“Ljubo (Milicevic), (Nikolai) Topor-Stanley and Angelo Costanzo in the second half – they know their job. Sometimes Shane Smeltz, Joel Porter and Jason (Culina) can have three touches and the ball is in the back of the net and sometimes it doesn’t work.”
Despite the loss Bleiberg could still appreciate the media interest generated by his side’s first defeat, particularly in light of Gold Coast owner Clive Palmer’s pre-season prediction of going through the entire season undefeated.
“I tell you a secret that if we lose a game one day we would lose in a game with one goal. And we attack, attack, attack and we just couldn’t convert,” Bleiberg said.
“I think the FFA admitted the Gold Coast to bring some colour and some excitement to the A-League so how many people do you think are happy today? We have brought joy, everybody is happy – the Gold Coast has lost.”
Bleiberg dismissed claims that the Gold Coast would now be under less pressure because it had the ‘monkey off its back’, so to speak, by registering a loss.
“The pressure about not losing? Between us Jason (Culina) and myself we knew one day we would lose … we didn’t know whether it would be 2012, 2015, but we knew one day we would lose,” joked the Gold Coast coach.
“But the pressure is increased now because we play Sydney at home and we want to win it even more than we wanted to win it before because we lost today.”
