Surely as qualified as anyone to pass judgement, Thomas Broich says Brisbane Roar are hard-wired to stage comebacks late in crucial games.
Surely as qualified as anyone to pass judgement, Thomas Broich says Brisbane Roar are hard-wired to stage comebacks late in crucial games.
For the third time in four seasons the Roar waited until they were behind and running out of time to score and then go on to win an A-League Grand Final.
In 2011 they were trailing 2-0 in extra-time against the Central Coast Mariners and somehow scored twice to equalise, before winning the game in a penalty shootout. A year later they came from 1-0 down to beat Perth Glory 2-1 thanks to Besart Berisha’s controversial 94th-minute penalty.
And they wrote a new chapter in the story of dramatic Roar revivals on Sunday, trailing at home to Western Sydney only for goals from Berisha and Henrique to seal another dramatic title triumph.
“We’ve got it in us,” Broich told Fox Sports.
“We just needed to stick to our structure, keep probing and that’s what we’ve done. I guess it was an awesome performance second half, we put them under real pressure and the goal was well deserved in the end.
“It was a bit of a heart break when they pretty much scored from their first goal chance. I played a part in it too, my defending there wasn’t the best. So I had to try extra hard and I was fortunate enough to set up the equaliser.”
Eight of the Roar players who featured in the matchday squad for the 2012 Grand Final win played again on Sunday, something Broich feels was important in getting his team over the line.
“It helps, we’ve all done it before, except for Dimi,” he said, referring to newcomer Dimitri Petratos.
“That really showed, there’s so much drive, so much passion in this team. We just never give up.”
When asked what’s next for the A-League’s most successful team, Broich said: “It’s a bit scary, where do we go from here?”
Perhaps Matt McKay has an answer for his colleague, with the man who rejoined the Roar after two seasons away seeking more consistency in 2014-15.
“We’re a driven outfit,” he said.
“We haven’t had as fluent a season, I felt we were a bit stop-start, we couldn’t really get a string of results together. There’d be a loss in there somewhere that would put a dampener on things.
“To get back and be as consistent as we were, to win the league by 10 points is impressive. That comes from the experienced players and the younger players who are pushing each other to get better.”
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