Roar eye another home grand final
Brisbane Roar aim to make the Grand Final for the second consecutive year - can they win the A-League? (AAP Image/ Patrick Hamilton)
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Playmaker Thomas Broich warned Brisbane Roar were back in the midst of another breathtaking run after delivering a 2-0 blow to Central Coast’s hopes of hosting the A-League grand final.
The German maestro hit all the right notes in Saturday night’s first leg of the major semi-final to have the Roar eying a second straight title decider at Suncorp Stadium on April 22.
A win, draw or one-goal loss next Sunday in Gosford will mean the reigning champions host the grand final on April 22.
Brisbane largely dominated the minor premiers for their seventh win in a nine-match unbeaten streak – four months after the national record 36-match run.
Broich showed his class by mesmerising three defenders in setting up a crucial second goal to Erik Paartalu in the 86th minute, as a blazing strike made amends for a litany of missed chances.
With the Roar travelling to South Korea to play Ulsan Hyundai in the Asian Champions League on Wednesday night, before a return match against the Mariners in Gosford on Sunday, Paartalu’s goal was hugely important in the scheme of the home-and-away tie.
“We have a big trip and to go into a second semi-final 2-0 that helps big time,” Broich said.
“We created so many chances and 1-0 is still a good result but that doesn’t reflect the true story of the game.
“It will be tough (with the travel) but I think we’re on a good run again. We’ve played some good football and we’re creating many chances in every game.”
Brisbane led from the eighth minute when Henrique atoned for a failed penalty attempt 60 seconds earlier by slotting home a Matt Smith header from a Broich corner.
The Brazilian’s penalty was saved brilliantly by Matt Ryan, who came to Central Coast’s rescue throughout the first half.
The Mariners had the better of the resumption and Tomas Rogic should have equalised from Pedj Bojic just after the break but Michael Theoklitos produced a reflex save.
Broich, hampered by shoulder and heel problems in recent weeks, came into his own in the final 20 minutes to put his mark on the match.
Roar coach Ange Postecoglou said a 1-0 result would have been an injustice to his side’s dominance, but Mariners counterpart Graham Arnold rued Rogic’s missed chance and was adamant his side’s grand final hosting hopes were still alive.
“I thought it was a great game of football, overall both teams played well,” he said.
Brisbane’s Bahraini defender Mohamed Adnan bravely completely the match despite being troubled by a knee injury which saw Matt Jurman warm-up at halftime.
Henrique finished with a hamstring concern that saw him replaced after an hour, and leaves him in doubt for Wednesday night’s ACL clash.
© AAP 2013
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April 1st 2012 @ 5:12am
Kasey said | April 1st 2012 @ 5:12am | Report comment
Simple football question, were Brisbane just better or were the football Gods punishing the Mariners (and some of their fans) for spending the week talking about how unjust it would be to win the Major Semi final tie and not get to host the GF at Bluetongue? Verily, the Football Gods hate it when footballers and fans get ahead of themselves – they can be spiteful deities as any Socceroos fan well knows! Perhaps the Mariners need John Safran and Father Bob to reverse what ever curse they seem to have on them when playing the Roar. And so it came to pass, Seriously, Brisbane were pretty good weren’t they? even with Broich at what looks like
80% Broich-factor they are very fun to watch for a neutral IMO.
April 1st 2012 @ 5:25am
Mark Roth said | April 1st 2012 @ 5:25am | Report comment
While I personally want Brisbane to win, I also agree with Central Coast that it should be able to host the grand final where they wish. If the league is concerned about teams using grounds that might be too small, they should take away the right to host the grand final.
April 1st 2012 @ 5:45am
Kasey said | April 1st 2012 @ 5:45am | Report comment
I’m on the record as saying it would be much better for football to have a sell-out crowd at Bluetongue than a 60% full SFS if CCM won the rights, butthere’s a reason why coaches drill their players to “take it one week at a time”:) I can’t help thinking that perhaps Arnie lost control of the Mariners players focus a touch. The only times they looked really dangerous was Bernie Ibini occasionally breaking the Brisbane defensive line on the counter, but other than that I thought the Mariners weren’t really in it. I’d love to see them turn it around next week. Not sure if they can, but it will make interesting watching:)
April 1st 2012 @ 8:32am
pete4 said | April 1st 2012 @ 8:32am | Report comment
Yep Roar and Mariners both have ACL games mid-week which will have a big impact on next Sunday’s match (even if both get away injury free)
April 1st 2012 @ 11:04am
Realfootball said | April 1st 2012 @ 11:04am | Report comment
Amini was notably poor in this game, again, mirroring his performances in the U20 WC. Hard to see him succeeding at Dortmund unless he lifts his game a good 60% in pace and intensity. Rogic, too, was invisible apart for a couple of moments. The intensity from Brisbane was just too much in midfield – this was very close to Brisbane at their peak.
Arnold has to shoulder responsibility for much of a very poor Mariners performance. He laid the team out to invite Brisbane to come at CCM, and left both Roar fullbacks free to attack at will, which they did. Sitting deep and relying on a single striker to counter might be fine when you are 1-0 up with 15 to go, but when a team is 1-0 down, to maintain the strategy is simply incomprehensible.
Champagne corks must have been popping at FFA headquarters after the second goal, with a Suncorp final looking likely.
April 1st 2012 @ 11:12am
Roarsome said | April 1st 2012 @ 11:12am | Report comment
Here’s hoping for a Suncorp Final, the atmosphere last year was incredible. I just hope both the Mariners and the Roar get through their ACL games unscathed.
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April 1st 2012 @ 11:45am
Dinoweb said | April 1st 2012 @ 11:45am | Report comment
A good game by the Roar, but apart from some great work by Adnan to deny Ibini on two occassions, and one piece of magic by Broich, I’m hard stretched to think of anything any Brisbane player did that was outstanding. They played great as a team, but individually most were average. Broich lost the ball or made bad passes on numerous occassions, Nichols passing was hit and miss, and Berisha hardly touched the ball. This is just a sample. I could say something similar about the entire team.
Despite a lack of outstanding individual performances though, Brisbane totally dominated CCM who never really looked like they were in the match. CCM will have to at least try and attack next week, but unlesss they improve dramatically, or get lucky early, it should be an easy win to Brisbane.
On the down side, I was very dissappointde with the attendance. 15k this year compared with 25k for the same fixture last year. Come on Brisbane, it’s not good enough.
April 1st 2012 @ 12:59pm
Realfootball said | April 1st 2012 @ 12:59pm | Report comment
Agree with your observations on individual players. Broich, apart from a couple of wonderful passes, was poor in his distribution and in his decision making, losing the ball over and over again. But as a team, they overran CCM.
You are not correct on the attendance – it was 21k last year. Still a significant difference, but the Broncos pulled 38k the night before at Suncorp, and what we are seeing here is the result of going head to head with the NRL and AFL at the much anticipated start of their seasons – those that were missing from the Brisbane/CCM game were, I suspect, the cross coders who put NRL first and football second. Two expensive games in successive nights would be too much for most budgets.
There are three other factors to take into account:
1. The 21K crowd last year came to see the deciding leg of the major semi, and the first leg this year was far less attractive to cross coders.
2. There is definitely a Roar/CCM fatigue factor coming into play. I’m a committed fan and even I thought, Oh no, not the Mariners again. Add to this the fact that the Mariners are efficient but certainly not inspiring to watch, and you have a notably low key event for the crosscoders and uncommitted.
3. CCM are, like it or not, a small provincial club lacking the profile of Victory or Sydney. If that had been the Victory last night, I am confident that there would have been a minimum of 30k there. CCM, like Phoenix, have never pulled crowds as a visiting team, and I doubt they ever will. The rivalry is between the cities, not – and I don’t wish to offend CCM fans – a club representing what is essentially a large suburb most people outside of Sydney have never heard of. The mystique, the frission, just isn’t there with the Mariners – and that is not a value judgement; simply a clearly observable fact.
The positive out of all this, however, his that even up against the Broncos, the Roar can now clearly rely on the rusted on support of 15,000 fans – no small achievement when you consider that they were pulling 6-8k in the early to mid stages of last season. It was a great crowd to be in – passionate, knowledgable and committed.
April 1st 2012 @ 1:39pm
Ballymore said | April 1st 2012 @ 1:39pm | Report comment
According to the Sunday Mail, Wikipedia and my memory is was 25,000 last season.
April 1st 2012 @ 2:04pm
Realfootball said | April 1st 2012 @ 2:04pm | Report comment
I stand corrected on the crowd figure.
April 3rd 2012 @ 1:26pm
j binnie said | April 3rd 2012 @ 1:26pm | Report comment
The actual figure for that game as given out at the time was 25,168. jb
April 1st 2012 @ 8:55pm
BrisbaneBhoy said | April 1st 2012 @ 8:55pm | Report comment
No mention of local football games being at the same time?? I know this is why a few of the regulars I know couldn’t attend the match.
April 2nd 2012 @ 8:23am
Kasey said | April 2nd 2012 @ 8:23am | Report comment
You know, I feel sorry for those on here that can only offer comment on the crowd size as their contribution to the conversation. To me it seems like football is falling into a trap set by the AFL dominated media and its lapdog talking heads rthat set the asgenda in sports mad Australia. That trap is to directly equate crowd size to enjoyment of those in attendance or watching at home. My folks had the AFL game on in the back ground when I visited last and I think I heard the commentators mention the “marsive crowd at the Gee”! about 5 times in 10 minutes rather than you know actually calling the game being played. I equate linking the crowd size at a football game and importance to the way football illiterates link the number of goals in a game to its entertainment value. It’s a trap because obviously the AFL gets incredibly high crowds and is one of the best attended sports leagues in the world so anything else in this country, be it RL, RU or football is going to pale when directly compared. I watched all the games over the weekend and I enjoyed all of them, even the goalless first half of Heart @Glory. That was like watching cage fighters parry and thrust trying to find a weakness before going for the jugular. a very interesting game all-in-all. Sure enough, cometh the moment, cometh the man in Smeltz with a brilliant finals hat-trick.
Now if we were to talk about promotion of the league and the game we would all wish for the FFA to do more in terms of its promotion, but again, we are comparing apples to oranges. How much of the AFL’s promotion is league driven/spend and how much is a part of the contra deals negotiated as part of the broadcast agreement that league has with the TV networks? FFA simply doesn’t yet have the money to go head to head and toe to toe with the AFL on advertising itself.
Just concentrate on the football and the game will look after itself in the long run.
April 2nd 2012 @ 8:50am
Realfootball said | April 2nd 2012 @ 8:50am | Report comment
Kasey, I agree in general about the attendance focus, but when a game between the same teams in the same major semi final loses around 40% of its paying spectators, it would be very unwise not to look at why.
April 1st 2012 @ 3:18pm
stu said | April 1st 2012 @ 3:18pm | Report comment
I am sure many remember 32 odd thousand at the knock our finals game against sydney 3 or 4 years back. The Roar management should never think they are winning the battle for bums on seats, indeed they are far from it and again highlights if they have a market out there why are they not getting them through the turnstiles?
April 2nd 2012 @ 2:11am
Hbomb@hotmail.com said | April 2nd 2012 @ 2:11am | Report comment
It was 36 v sydney
April 1st 2012 @ 12:44pm
gawa said | April 1st 2012 @ 12:44pm | Report comment
The performance from Brisbane was pretty strong and we really could have scored another 2 or 3.
As for the crowd figure, it seems as though the general public are no longer engaged and the blame for this is down to the non existant promotion of the league. The only way to find promotion of the A League is to already be a football fan. Football fans are doing their bit, 15k is about right it’s the wider public that didn’t turn up in any numbers whatsoever last night.
Up here in Qld we are bombarded with League, AFL and to a lesser extent Union. I flick through most radio stations in the course of a days work and this week the finals barely got a mention.
So hats off to the football public but the new Brisbane Roar owners and the FFA need to seriously lift their game.
April 1st 2012 @ 12:47pm
gawa said | April 1st 2012 @ 12:47pm | Report comment
I would also add a belief I have held for a few years, that were it not for social media and fans own networking the A League would have failed a few years ago.
April 1st 2012 @ 8:49pm
bart said | April 1st 2012 @ 8:49pm | Report comment
agreed, if i didnt spread the news around then none of my friends would even know that the season was over and it was finals time.
shame, but glad we were there awesome game
April 1st 2012 @ 1:15pm
Realfootball said | April 1st 2012 @ 1:15pm | Report comment
Just a final comment on the attendance last night – I think people are tending to forget how far we have come. On Friday night at Suncorp, 38,000 watched the Broncos play. On Saturday 15,000 watched the Roar. How many fans would the Brisbane Strikers or Lions have pulled up against the publicity machine that is the Broncos?
We have come a long, long way in a very short time.
Wellington’s dismal attendance was another matter, however – clearly it isn’t working in Wellington, but from this distance I have no idea why not.
April 1st 2012 @ 3:46pm
stu said | April 1st 2012 @ 3:46pm | Report comment
You really need to look back in the history book. Knock out final against Sydney from memory around 32,000 some 4 or so years back. Attendances have dwindled, however they are starting to bounce back from 2 seasons back. The reality is the Roar have not fought hard enough to build media contacts in Brisbane. They, along with FFA still do not clearly understand the key to success is winning the media battle by people who have the motivation and desire to build these bridges. One does not need millions to do this, it is simple relationship building.
April 1st 2012 @ 4:46pm
Realfootball said | April 1st 2012 @ 4:46pm | Report comment
Was at the Sydney game you refer to. My recollection is that 34000 attended, but there were massive storms and in fact 43,000 tickets had been sold. I recall that the game was delayed by 20 or 30 minutes by the storms. That was the A-League
highwater mark in terms of overall attendances, I think – don’t forget Victory were pulling 40,000-50,000 to the Sydney games at Etihad.
April 2nd 2012 @ 2:54pm
clayts said | April 2nd 2012 @ 2:54pm | Report comment
You remember correctly. I was held up on a train and it actually looked like the game would bedelayed because of the lightning/rain. Can’t remember if it was though. Had been at the RE all day
April 1st 2012 @ 10:52pm
Dinoweb said | April 1st 2012 @ 10:52pm | Report comment
In 1997, the Strikers pulled 14,666 (I was one of them) to the Major semi-final against Sydney United on a Saturday in May with an average season attendance of 4-5k.
To get 15,081 to the same ground, though with much improved facilities, with an average season attendance of 13k, for a similar fixture 15 years latter in my book is not good enough.
Suggestions that local soccer games were in progress, or that the Borncos/Reds/Lions or whoever played on the same weekend doesn’t change the fact that 15k for a major final is not really good enough. That is a good regular season crowd, but a poor finals crowd. They got 11.5k average for the two CCM games during the season.
The club and league need to promote the games on main stream media more. I heard no mention of the game on local radio, and only a brief mention on the Firday night news.
April 1st 2012 @ 1:50pm
Ballymore said | April 1st 2012 @ 1:50pm | Report comment
Several things that were clear to me watching last nights game:
1) A reminder the Roar are far superior technically, and CCM are too reliant on scoring early and sitting back when playing the Roar.
2) A crowd of 15,000 is unacceptable. Down from 25,000 last season (which admittedly was at night time and the second leg).
3) I don’t understand Amini’s move to Borussiua Dortmund.Agent-driven? Better young Australians than Amini (Ruka, Oar, Zullo, Vidosic, Kruse – all Socceroos) all moved to smaller clubs than the German champions. Expecting him to stall, not be in the postcode of the first team and be moved on. As a Socceroo fan, this is concerning. He offered nothing last night.
4) The Roar impotency from the penalty spot is alarming.
5) Patrick Zwaanswijk was petulant and embarrassing. Expected better from a man his experience. Strebe should have put in his place.
April 1st 2012 @ 2:06pm
Realfootball said | April 1st 2012 @ 2:06pm | Report comment
What is your view on the reason for the low crowd vis a vis last season, Ballymore? It is a big difference. Do you differ from my take on the issue, as posted above?
April 1st 2012 @ 2:37pm
Ballymore said | April 1st 2012 @ 2:37pm | Report comment
I agree with all three of your points, however (for me personally and I could well be in the minority) I don’t feel any BNE/CCM fatigue because I think developing a history and rivarly with another club is important, especially since QLD derbies are on shaky ground.
One thing neither of us mentioned was that to find out about Roar matches one has to investigate yourself. With zero promotion, it relies on people to find out via social media, the internet or reading the footer at the bottom of a newspaper article. For engaged fans, that is fine but it doesn’t spread the message to casual fans/cross coders. Thoughts? I wonder whether the afternoon kickoff hurt?
April 1st 2012 @ 2:32pm
Fussball ist unser leben said | April 1st 2012 @ 2:32pm | Report comment
Excellent 1st half by Brisbane – totally dominated possession but, as usual, lots of pretty passing football with very few dangerous balls behind the last defender.
2nd half was a complete reversal & CCM had BRI on the ropes … away from home! In the final 10 minutes, Brisbane got more possession and Paartalau was unlucky to hit the crossbar. It was a terrific 2nd goal by Brisbane due to two pieces of individual brilliance – Broich was superb taking the ball and creating 1/2 a chance; Paartalau was devastating with his shot.
A 2-0 home lead is the bare minimum we expect when evenly matched teams play 2-leg finals and, by not conceding an away goal, the tie is very evenly poised.
Brisbane’s travels to Sth Korea mid-week to play Ulsan, who are currently equal top of the K-League.
April 2nd 2012 @ 2:59pm
clayts said | April 2nd 2012 @ 2:59pm | Report comment
Evenly poised? Your anti-Roarness is seeping out here.
Pretty sure Roar are in the box seat having never even lost in Gosford. All they have to do is score a goal and the semi is effectively over I think. We all know the Roar’s depth and fitness will prove superiorin the end. For this, Ange must be lauded
April 2nd 2012 @ 3:09pm
Fussball ist unser leben said | April 2nd 2012 @ 3:09pm | Report comment
Fair enough – that’s your opinion.
My opinion is that in a 2-leg final if the first leg ends:
a) 1-0, the away team has a distinct advantage
b) 2-0, evenly poised
c) winning margin 2 goals or less & away team scores, away team distinct advantage
d) all other scores, home team distinct advantage
Again, this is just my observation from watching football for the past 30 years.
April 3rd 2012 @ 12:16pm
clayts said | April 3rd 2012 @ 12:16pm | Report comment
I’m clearly not as old as you, but in my 20 years of watching football (though I’m not really sure what that has to do with anything – I would respect your opinion anyway), I’d rather be 2-0 up going into the 2nd leg than 1-0 up. Particularly at a ground where Roar have never lost and usually score at least 1 goal at. All Roar have to do is score and thus tie is over. That wouldn’t be the case at 1-0. You’re right though, just my opinion
April 3rd 2012 @ 1:03pm
Fussball ist unser leben said | April 3rd 2012 @ 1:03pm | Report comment
Any AUS football fan, who was alive on 29 November 1997, would understand the implications of a football scoreline of 2-0.
If you can’t remember that far back, cast your mind to 13 March 2011 at Lang Park: 3 minutes to play in the HAL Grand Final & the score is 2-0 … 180 seconds later things had changed dramatically.
And, if you can’t remember that far back, cast your mind to last Friday, 30 March 2012. Nix are 2-0 up with 10 minutes to play in their Elimination final … again, 180 seconds later the score had changed dramatically.
“Two-nil” … the most dangerous score in football.
April 3rd 2012 @ 1:46pm
Nathan of Perth said | April 3rd 2012 @ 1:46pm | Report comment
Some of us have learned not to trust 3-nil either …
April 3rd 2012 @ 1:48pm
Kasey said | April 3rd 2012 @ 1:48pm | Report comment
That night still irks me no end:(
From Vidmars’s profligacy infront of goal to the crowd getting ahead of itsel and singing Que Sera Sera etc and of course the serial Pest himself, what a horrible night, no wonder both the great J.Warren (and not so great me) cried at the sound of the ref’s final whistle that night. The Australian Fanzine Studs Up went with just a black cover for the December 1997 issue so distraught were we all. I hate 2-0, it still gives me the Heebee Jeebies.
April 3rd 2012 @ 1:58pm
Kasey said | April 3rd 2012 @ 1:58pm | Report comment
Nathan, the mariners once overturned a 3-0 deficit at Hindmarsh(for a 3-3 finish) to the great shock of us locals….still at least our wasn’t in a GF in front of 40k fans eh;)
April 3rd 2012 @ 1:58pm
Fussball ist unser leben said | April 3rd 2012 @ 1:58pm | Report comment
Of course, if you’re Arsene Wenger you learn that 4-0 can be a dangerous score. 12 months ago, Arsenal went 0-4 up away to Newcastle in the EPL after just 26 mins. They were still 0-4 up with 22 mins to play.
Final score? Newcastle United 4 – 4 Arsenal