John Aloisi has revealed how Brisbane Roar exposed Sydney FC’s growing set-piece problem to become the first away winners at Allianz Stadium since March 2016.
Unlikely heroes Matt McKay and Jacob Pepper did the damage inside 20 minutes to set up a vital 2-1 victory for the Finals Series hopefuls.
The early opener came via Eric Bautheac’s corner before Pepper doubled the visitors’ shock advantage from a free-kick nine minutes later, Ivan Franjic having kept alive Fahid Ben Khalfallah’s dangerous delivery.
Pepper’s strike – his first in over six years – was the seventh time Roar have scored from a free-kick this season and cast further light on a Sydney FC issue that has come to prominence in the AFC Champions League.
“We worked hard on what our tactics were during the week,” Aloisi said after the match.
“[From] set-pieces we thought we could hurt them. As we’ve seen in the past few games, in the Champions League, they’ve been hurt off some set-pieces.
“The thing about set-pieces is you need good delivery and we’ve got two players who can deliver the ball really well in Ben Khalfallah and Bautheac.
“And no one probably expected Matt McKay to creep up into that area and score a header!
“Lately we’ve been scoring a lot from set-pieces because we’ve got good players that can deliver the ball.”
Brisbane have now won five of their last seven and Aloisi says his players are determined to make up the remaining two points to sixth-placed Western Sydney Wanderers.
“They don’t want to write it off. They want to make finals,” he said.
“We’ve got winners in our team who want to win and they’ve believed the whole time.”
