The Brisbane Roar have kept their finals hopes alive with a 6-1 thumping of the Central Coast Mariners at Suncorp Stadium.
It was the Steven Lustica show at Suncorp Stadium tonight as the former Gold Coast and Adelaide midfielder scored the first hat trick of his professional career to give the Roar the win.
Two goals in the first half, and a final goal in the second half to Lustica, gave Brisbane a lifeline in their finals hopes.
It was a match that would be over in the first half as Brisbane put three goals past the Mariners.
With the return of Thomas Broich, from a long injury layoff, Brisbane found their form which had been missing in the last four matches.
On the 21st minute they showed that as they opened the scoring.
Broich would put in a great through ball to Kaluderovic who would open the scoring for the Roar with a nice shot past Reddy in the goals.
It would then be the Lustica show seven minutes later, as the midfielder rocketed two goals past the Mariners defence.
The first goal would come from a corner as Broich passed to Lustica.
Lustica would then crack the ball from outside of the box, get a deflection, and find the top corner of the goal.
With four minutes to go before half time, Lustica would hit another shot from outside of the box, that would move along the ground and into the net for a goal.
This gave Brisbane a handy 3-0 at half time which would be extended quickly.
Devante Clut would add a fourth goal on 48 minutes before Brandon Borrello would cut through the Mariners defence to add a 5th.
After an own goal for the Mariners after 65 minutes, Lustica would complete his hat trick to make it 6-1.
The win moves Brisbane to within 5 points of Melbourne City with 4 games to go.
A loss to City over the Wanderers will make it game on in the race for a top 6 spot.
As for the Mariners they need to re-group after the loss.
The loss is their biggest in the A-League and they need to bounce back quickly before they play the Wanderers next week.
The Brisbane Roar put their season on the line tonight when they face the Central Coast Mariners at Suncorp Stadium. Join The Roar for live coverage from 8:00pm (AEDT).
A draw or loss to the Mariners will almost certainly end the Roar’s finals chances.
A loss would see Melbourne City 8 points ahead, which would raise to 11 if City beat the Wanderers.
This would require Brisbane to win their last four games, and for City to score nothing from their last three, to make the finals.
Meanwhile the Mariners have only won one point from their last three games, and are playing for next year.
Both contests between these two this season have been close.
In the first clash, on December 27, they played out an enthralling 3-3 draw. In their last clash, on February 13, the game was goal-less for 50 minutes before Brisbane won 2-0.
Both teams have made changes from last weekend. The home team is without Jerome Polenz, who is out with a groin injury, replaced by Shannon Brady, who signed a four-year deal with the club this week.
The Mariners have added two players to the team that lost 2-1 to the Victory last Friday night. Brent Griffiths – who won’t return to the club next year – and Travis Major have been promoted to the team.
Prediction
The previous two matches have been close and both teams have struggled for form recently.
Brisbane have to win tonight to stay alive but have struggled to find motivation to do that in recent weeks.
Based on that, and form, I predict the two teams to even each other out and the match to end in a draw.
Lionheart
Guest
I'll declare now, I'm no judge of football or players. But our young defenders look good - Brown, Donachie and Bowles, and our young midfielder Clut seems to catch eyes in most games he's started, thinking also that Bratten only came out of the youth system 2 seasons back (didn't he?), Borrello also is impressive nearly every game. Hey, even Petratos had some impressive charges last night. I'm going to remain confident in our youth, hope we keep them. Agree about Sarota.
RBBAnonymous
Guest
Sorota has been rubbish since he came back home from Holland. I am totally underwhelmed by his performances and was expecting a lot more. As for Cernak Ange was right.......he is rubbish also.
TK
Guest
JB/lionhearted, I think having Bratten and Broich in midfield made a big difference compared to the game against City. Last night the ball distribution into the forward half was much more useful for launching attacks on goal without having 6 defenders to beat first. I too like the cut of Bowles jib. Thought Klaudorobic made some good runs and his team mates just need to work out how to play with him which will come in time. Thought Solerzano was also outstanding down the left and could have had man of the match if not for the lustica hatrick.
j binnie
Guest
Lionheart I don't know if there is such a thing as a "nice" problem,but I get your meaning.Having said that I would not yet go overboard about Roar's talent spotting and recruitment.Actually the score last night was not indicative of the game itself but there is no doubt the Roar boys were the better overall team and of course on the night,better finishers. I don't know whether it registered with you or not but last night there were 5 players on the field who Roar in the past have let go from their stable, 3 of whom they have re-signed from other clubs and 2 who were playing for CCM.Back in AP's time I happened to mention to him that I rated Cernack quite highly as a kid with potential but not long after that he left the club.Watching him in recent weeks with CCM i still think he has something in his make up that even Roar could use if and when Serato goes back to Holland. The lad who impressed me last night was Bowles who I now wonder has been subject to the treatment handed out to Donnachie. The boy has been played at right fullback everywhere he has been and yet he does not have the pace or the go-forward attitude in his play that warrants selection in that posItion. Last night the 6' 2" kid appeared to slot into the centre back position seamlessly and it make one wonder,why has it taken 3 seasons to find that out. Now the test is going to come in coming weeks,just what is Roars best starting eleven? jb.
Lionheart
Guest
nice problem to have jb. Our young guys have shown class for some time now. Last night has been coming a while, but how do you now explain last week's game v City, when they couldn't progress into the net? Are the young guys hot and cold, or do they need that spark to fire them up, provided by Lustica last night, and denied by Frans against City by not using any subs? It says a lot for our junior recruitment and development. Many of these guys aren't locals - great talent identification, let's hope Roar can continue to identify, recruit and develop junior players like this.
Ian
Guest
Hard to tell for me. We moved up into the 2nd tier Western stand so had no idea how many were in the platinum and black sections of lower tier of the western stand which is generally full (especially platinum members) Certainly weren't many in the southern. I'll take 6180 as I predicted 7000.
j binnie
Guest
TK How right are your observations re. ball movement and the results.You will also note how the statistical pendulum has swung away from Roar who usually enjoy abour 65% of "possession", the vast majority of which in past weeks has been amassed with backward passes that took the team nowhere.Last night some of the ball movement was a treat to watch and created more "real"chances than we have witnessed in recent weeks and with Lustica,Borella and young Clut all willing to have a go at goal the results came. Franz's problem now is where to incorporate his "established" players into this team. It will be interesting to see his reaction for all was not perfect last night but was a helluva lot better than what has gone before in recent weeks.. jb
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
Bear in mind guys that CCM had about 5 shots in the final three or four minutes. Brisbane also conceded a lot of possession in the last 15 minutes. It was 60-40 until that time.
William Dalton Davis
Roar Rookie
I saw what you did there ;)
TK
Guest
Well that was unexpected. Great to see some goals, especially resulting from some quicker delivery of the ball forward and for attack to continue from there rather than fizzle out as it has so often this season. Liam reddy was ready to explode and understandably, some of that defence from the ccm was ordinary, but good on the roar for pressing home the advantage and putting the ball in the back of the net.
TK
Guest
Well lucky I had the 'Breslau...turned out to be raining goals!!
TK
Guest
I can't believe there were 6000 in the ground....looked more like 3-4000. Maybe there were a couple of thousand who didnt make it out of the members bar?
Ian
Guest
Yeah stats are one story. Didn't realise CCM had so many more corners. The only telling stat is shots on target.
Ian
Guest
As its you AZ you can get away with that... ;-) Who scheduled a game at 7pm Thursday before Easter and start of school holidays? Who scheduled another game in the rain?
RBBAnonymous
Guest
As you can see above the stats mean nothing. Its all about effective use of the ball. By reading those stats you would think that the Mariners should have won or at least made a close game of it. They were absolutely utter rubbish.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
STATS - POSSESSION - Brisbane 48% Central Coast 52% SHOTS - Brisbane 18 Central Coast 17 SHOTS ON TARGET - Brisbane 13 Central Coast 4 SHOTS OFF TARGET - Brisbane 2 Central Coast 8 PASSES - Brisbane 454 Central Coast 493 PASS ACCURACY - Brisbane 81% Central Coast 84% CORNERS - Brisbane 4 Central Coast 9 TACKLES - Brisbane 25 Central Coast 17 FOULS - Brisbane 9 Central Coast 12
Lionheart
Guest
Great win by Roar.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
Full comments and stats to come after I've had some food.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
FULL TIME Brisbane inflict Central Coast's worst loss in the A-League with a 6-1 thumping. Lustica scores a hat-trick with Kaluderovic, Clut and Borrello scoring one each. An own goal saved the Mariners a little bit.
Shane Jones
Roar Guru
90' It is starting to bucket down. 3 minutes of added time.