Adelaide coach Rini Coolen admits Brisbane were sensational in their 7-1 romp over his side, but says his men must take responsibility for their poor defending.
Adelaide coach Rini Coolen admits Brisbane were sensational in their 7-1 romp over his side, but says his men must take responsibility for their poor defending.
In a demoralising 15-minute stretch, the Roar ran through United with minimal resistance, pouring in five goals and playing with a pace and efficiency that must have had Adelaide thinking they were outnumbered two to one.
Crude and unnecessary tackles gifted the Roar two goals from the penalty spot, while Besart Berisha’s six-minute hat-trick was the product of superb interplay from the Roar and negligent defence from United.
Post-match, Coolen was understandably disappointed.
“In that period they scored five goals, so that’s not finding a good solution in a tactical way, but also very, very poor defending,” said Coolen.
“A team like Brisbane, if you give them chances like that, they’re going to hurt you.”
“Unfortunately that (21st-minute) penalty, that’s a giveaway; you shouldn’t defend like that. But also, the goals after that, again, good reactions, good shots from Brisbane, but poor defending.”
“I’ve never saw that before myself, so it’s a bit disappointing.”
United started the night full of promise, drawing first blood in the fifth minute of the game, with exciting talent Dario Vidosic wrong-footing Michael Theoklitos from well outside the penalty area.
Vidosic and Sergio van Dijk both beat the off-side trap immediately following the opener, but after the two of them squandered one-on-one chances to double the lead, Brisbane came raging back into the game with some of their finest vintage football.
Coolen insisted the Roar were a beatable side, claiming his side had shown it could be done, if only for the first 15 minutes.
“We started pretty well the first 15 minutes having our game-plan and trying to force them to build up on the sides and then hurt them in transition and spaces, which we know you’re going to get against them,” said Coolen.
“We scored a very good goal and had a few very good moments to maybe score a second goal, but that’s after 15 minutes.”
“There were two or three (more) moments after one-nil. That’s a good start.”
“I think we did good in the first 15 minutes. I think that’s a good game-plan to play against them. There’s different ways that you can beat them maybe.”
“We tried it, and I think the confirmation was there for 15 minutes, but that’s not enough.”
“How can you stop them? I don’t know. We thought we found something.”
