Round two of Isuzu UTE A-League kicked off at Suncorp Stadium, where Brisbane Roar defeated Sydney FC 3-0 at Suncorp Stadium.
Ross Aloisi tasted victory for the first time as Brisbane Roar coach in the A-Leagues, as his side blew past the Sky Blues on Friday night.
Here’s how the action unfolded.
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MATCHDAY AGENDA
Brisbane Roar 3-0 Sydney FC – Suncorp Stadium
Brisbane Roar have won their first Isuzu UTE A-League match under the tutelage of Ross Aloisi, exacting a dose of revenge for their Australia Cup final defeat to Sydney FC, by demolishing the Sky Blues 3-0 at Suncorp Stadium.
Henry Hore opened the scoring inside the opening minute, before an Andrew Redmayne mistake led to Nikola Mileusnic doubling their lead. Hore added another after half-time to wrap up the three points and Brisbane’s first league win under Aloisi.
The victory continues a promising patch by the Roar, who look reinvigorated under Aloisi and the club’s new leadership, helmed by former A-Leagues players Kaz Patafta and Zach Anderson.
It’s the first time Brisbane have won their opening home game of a league campaign since a 2-1 victory against Central Coast Mariners in October 2015.
Sydney – on the other hand – have crashed back down to earth following their Cup success earlier this month, with back-to-back defeats to start the league season. It’s only the second time in league history that the Sky Blues have lost consecutive games to start a campaign – with the last being in the 2012-13 season.
The Sky Blues had plenty of the ball, but failed to really test the Roar’s defence throughout the contest and struggled to deal with the ferocity of Brisbane’s press, and speed on the counter attack – especially without the likes of Jack Rodwell and Joel King at the back.
Brisbane – who came into the contest fresh off a draw to Macarthur FC in their season opener – surged out of the blocks and it only took 48 seconds for them to open the scoring, as Florin Berenguer pounced on a mistake in Sydney’s defensive half, before playing through Hore – whose deflected effort beat Redmayne.
Brisbane also led early in the Cup final a few weeks ago, but unlike the final at Allianz Stadium where they went on to lose 3-1, Roar didn’t let go of the rope and just after the twenty minute mark they led by two.
Redmayne failed to clear a bobbling back pass from teammate Gabriel Lacerda, with his clearance going straight up into the air and falling at the feet of Mileusnic, who buried the ball into an empty net.
Roar continued to put the pressure on the Sky Blues defence and the margin could have easily been bigger, had it not been for some smart stops from Redmayne prior to half-time.
To the Socceroos goalkeeper’s credit, he bounced back brilliantly in the moments after his untimely error, making quality stops to deny A-Leagues debutant Thomas Waddingham – even though he was offside – and then Jay O’Shea, and Hore as the first-half drew to a close.
But Hore wouldn’t be denied again after half-time.
Fabio Gomes gave the ball away in a dangerous position, leading to some dazzling interplay between the Roar attackers as Waddingham played through Hore, who buried his effort into the bottom corner.
Brisbane continued to mount the pressure on Sydney’s defence and almost had a fourth when Mileusnic was left one-on-one with Redmayne after a beautiful through-ball from Berenguer, but had his effort denied.
The special moments continued on Friday night, as Quinn MacNicol (15 years, 290 days old) was brought on for the final few minutes and became the club’s youngest ever A-League Men player, and the third youngest in A-League Men history after Teeboy Kamara (15 years, 212 days) and Idrus Abdulahi (15 years, 216 days).
The talking point
Sydney’s evening went from bad to worse in the opening half, after Redmayne failed to clear a bobbling back pass from teammate Gabriel Lacerda. The Socceroo goalkeeper’s clearance went straight up into the air and fell at the feet of Mileusnic, who buried the ball into an empty net.
Redmayne bounced back in the moments after and was able to make a number of stops to try and keep Sydney in the contest. However, some cheap turnovers from his teammates didn’t help his cause, especially in the lead-up to Hore’s second goal of the contest.
The star
Henry Hore, take a bow.
The Roar forward fired home a brace in their victory over Sydney FC and was the standout performer all evening at Suncorp Stadium. It took seconds for him to make an impact when he opened the scoring in the first minute, before well taken second after half-time to wrap up the win.
Hore’s blistering run of form, in fact, started at the tail-end of last season. Hore scored two goals and tallied three assists under former Roar interim coach Nick Green and carried that form into the early days of this campaign – in both the Cup and the league.
The 24-year-old scored two goals in their Cup run to the final, as well, along with grabbing an assist in the win over Sydney United 58.
What they said
Brisbane Roar coach Ross Aloisi: “We’re pretty happy with the performance and the amount of goal scoring opportunities that we got into.
“I still think that we could have played better football, at times when we won the ball, we turned it over cheaply, but we scored three goals and we could have had six. It’s very pleasing, especially the number of players that we have out.
Aloisi was asked by Network 10’s Scott Mackinnon if he has taken any inspiration from Ange Postecoglou since taking over Brisbane, given what the Spurs boss achieved at the club during their most successful period in the league over a decade ago.
“Absolutely, from Ange, from Graham Arnold, from Kevin Muscat, from all these coaches that have been successful. Australian coaches that have allowed us the opportunity to be able to coach in the A-League.
“I’m a big believer in the football that I want to play, and I want it to be exciting and I want the fans back. It wasn’t a huge crowd tonight, but it was a very, very loud crowd as well and that’s what we want here at the Brisbane Roar.
“I thank those guys for allowing us Australian coaches to go into coaching, because they made a pathway for us.”
Sydney FC coach Steve Corica: “We definitely weren’t at the races today, from start to finish, they played really well, put us under pressure. We couldn’t deal with it.
“The three goals, they come from our mistakes. We gave the ball away. The first one was the deflection. The second one Redders (Redmayne) has made a mistake and the third one was another one we gave away, but they played really well. We just weren’t at it tonight.
Bringing on the kids?: “The game was over, but to be honest, I think I could have taken anyone off at halftime. They weren’t doing their job.
“It could have been easily two or three other players I could have taken off, but at at three nil, we were never coming back in that game.
“First half, we had our opportunities to get back into the game, but we were poor defensively with the ball, we weren’t great either… We did create a couple of good opportunities, but they had a lot more opportunities to score goals and I think Redders made some fantastic saves.”
What this means
Brisbane Roar have an enormous wind in their sails heading into Round 3.
Ross Aloisi’s side were brilliant on the counter-attack all evening and have sent a warning shot to the rest of the competition with the three-goal win over Sydney FC. Back-to-back road games against Wellington on November 4 and Central Coast Mariners on November 12 await before the international break.
Meanwhile, Sydney FC need to find answers and quickly.
The Sky Blues came into the season with plenty of momentum after winning the Cup, but have tailed off in the ensuing weeks with back-to-back losses, where they’re also still yet to score a single goal.
It doesn’t get any easier for Steve Corica’s side who face Melbourne City on November 3 and Adelaide United on November 11 away from home in their next two games.
