Brisbane unveiled a new hard-edge attitude in tuning up for the finals with a 1-0 win over second-rate Sydney FC at the SFS on Sunday night.
Attracting all the right headlines for their emphasis on attacking, one touch football this year, the Roar showed they were equally at home in overalls as dinner suits as they grinded out their first-ever victory in Sydney.
That’s not to say there was no glitz – the winning goal from Kosta Barbarouses in the 41st minute was pure quality – but it was a more workmanlike Brisbane we saw as they carved out a solid win before a crowd of just over 7000.
“Maybe for the first time this year we’ve actually tried to play for a result,” delighted coach Ange Postecoglou said after overseeing Brisbane’s 16th straight match without defeat.
“We wanted to see if we could grind out a result and keep a clean sheet … we haven’t done that for a while.”
“(We wanted) to see if we can control a game for 90 minutes and not just play good football and score goals but be solid when we need to.”
“It wasn’t our most sparkling performance but there were a lot of positives out of it.”
Asked if it was a portent of things to come in the run to the finals and beyond, Postecoglou said: “No doubt. Every game between now and the end of the year takes (on) more significance.”
“There are very few teams out of it (the top six race) and within the six they’ll be jockeying for positions, so we want to control a game of the football when we know the opposition is going to come at us.”
“It was a bit of a test run today to see whether we could do that and I thought we did quite well.”
That Sydney FC was used as the guinea pig indicates how far the defending champions have slumped.
They are still a mathematical chance of reaching the finals but, on current form, would be making up the numbers if they somehow got there.
The Sky Blues turned in a terrible first half but at least asked some questions of the Roar defence in the second 45 without ever really looking like scoring.
“(The) first half wasn’t good. We didn’t have confidence to play (with) better quality in attack,” coach Vitezslav Lavicka said.
“We get the ball and first, second pass we gave the ball away.”
“Second half we definitely improved, we played better quality in attack and created half chances but didn-t score the goal.”
Solemn skipper Terry McFlynn added: “We just have to stay strong as a group and stay positive.”
“We have the confidence and belief we can still make the finals.”
