The Brisbane Roar may be without the attacking presence of Reinaldo for their away clash with Melbourne Heart on Sunday, but their backline will take a boost from the return of Shane Stefanutto.
A hamstring complaint has kept Stefanutto out of action since the Roar’s 2-0 win over Central Coast, and, having seen his team take three wins and a draw in his absence, the experienced defender is bursting to get back on the pitch to do his part.
“I’m definitely ready to go. I’ve missed too much football this past year, so I want to get into it straight away,” Stefanutto said.
“The team’s been doing really well without me, so I wasn’t sure what the plans were. The boys who have come in have done a great job.”
“I’m sick of missing football, so I couldn’t wait to get back out there with the boys training… I want to be part of every second from here on in,” he said.
The Roar have had 12 goal-scorers already this season and Stefanutto says being the only regular starter yet to open his account is another driving factor in his return to A-League action.
“It is time I think. The pressure’s building, so the sooner I do it, the better,” he said.
“I should have it out of the road by now, but I haven’t. If I keep getting chances I’m sure I’ll get one sooner rather than later.”
“I’m a defensive left-back so I will get forward, and hopefully the ball might pop to me one time and I can slot it away.”
With the obvious exception of Reinaldo , who takes an enforced break after being sent from the ground against Adelaide United, Brisbane will be near full-strength for their clash, and Ange Postecoglou is keen to see his team stretch out as they strive to hit another level.
When the sides met for the first time it was all one-way traffic and even though the match finished at 4-0 in the Roar’s favour, most in attendance would say the score-line greatly flattered the Heart.
But since then the A-League’s newest franchise has gone undefeated, taking three wins and three draws, and Postecoglou says both sides have grown too much to pay any attention to their last result.
“A lot has changed with them, certainly. They’ve had a really good run of form since then… I think they’re a much more effective side now,” the Roar boss said.
“I think when we played them last they were still in the mix of trying to find which players were most effective in the system they were playing.”
“You look at their line-up now and there are a lot of young guys in there… all these guys are very mobile and I think it suits the kind of game they want to play better.”
“From our point of view, I firmly believe and see that we’ve gotten better since that day as well, so the test will be to see how far we’ve come.”
Costa Rican import Jean Carlos Solorzano will be named to start at the head of the Brisbane attack in the absence of Reinaldo, while Matt Mundy will be the defender stood down in favour of Stefanutto.
