Adelaide United’s attempt to put a stop to Brisbane Roar’s Hyundai A-League dominance has ended up resembling a horror show as the Reds were humbled 7-1 by the reigning champions at Suncorp Stadium.
Adelaide United-s attempt to put a stop to Brisbane Roar-s Hyundai A-League dominance has ended up resembling a horror show as the Reds were humbled 7-1 by the reigning champions at Suncorp Stadium.
The Roar-s 32 game unbeaten streak and scintillating start to season seven is showing no signs of faltering anytime soon after the Reds became their latest victims in a ruthless display.
The match was effectively over by half time when the home side led 5-1 thanks to an astonishing 6 minute hat-trick from Roar midfielder Besart Berisha, the fastest ever in the Hyundai A-League.
Two penalties from Brazilian striker Henrique either side of Berisha-s purple patch accentuated the Roar-s dominance in a nightmare evening for the Reds.
Berisha added his fourth before substitute Issey Nakajima-Farran put a final nail in the coffin after half time to leave Adelaide United with serious soul searching to do ahead of next Friday night-s crucial home clash against Melbourne Heart.
It all started promisingly for the Reds when Dario Vidosic stunned the Suncorp Stadium crowd in just the 5th minute when Michael Theoklitos was beaten for the first time this season, but from there it was all one way traffic as the Roar-s midfield brigade and Berisha ran riot, Brisbane piling on five goals in a breathtaking 15 minute period.
After a strong positive week on the training track, the Reds came out of the blocks with the intent and intensity that was always going to be required to upset the confident Roar, and Vidosic capitalised on the bright start.
The Reds continued to on the front foot forcing Brisbane-s defence to scramble and they went close to adding to their advantage, but from the time captain Jon McKain brought down Mitch Nichols inside the penalty area, the Roar turned on the blowtorch.
Worryingly, all of Brisbane-s goals were hammered home from within 10 metres as they exposed frailties in the Reds- defensive structure, although not that many sides would have been able to contain the Roar in that kind of mood. The performance leaves Head Coach Rini Coolen with it all to do in order to get his charges to respond against the Heart next Friday.
“The first 15 minutes was positive, we had our game plan and scored the first goal and created some opportunities to maybe score a second one,” Coolen said in his reflection of the game.
“But then we didn-t solve the problem on the left hand side with (Thomas) Broich, which we talked about, they gave us problems and within 15 minutes they scored five goals, so that-s not only finding a solution in a tactical way but also very poor defending.”
“I don-t directly have the solutions now but we have to do something, that-s for sure.”
“We selected a lot of good football players which can bring us to another level but we-re far away from the level from last season so we have to change some things, and that-s my job so we-ll work on it from tomorrow, but you have to keep supporting your players and your squad.”
Match Details
Brisbane Roar 7 (Henrique 21- (pen)/ 36- (pen), Berisha 23-/26-/29-/69-, Nakajima-Farran 81-)
Adelaide United FC 1 (Vidosic 5-)
Referee: Strebre Delovski
Brisbane Roar line-up: 1.Michael Theoklitos (gk), 2.Matt Smith (c), 3.Shane Stefanutto, 4.Matt Jurman (16.Mohamed Adnan 46-), 5.Ivan Franjic, 6.Erik Paaratlu, 7.Besart Berisha (9.Kofi Danning 70-), 8.Massimo Murdocca, 10.Henrique (11.Issey Nakajima-Farran 57-), 17.Mitch Nichols, 22.Thomas Broich
Substitutes not used: 30.Matt Acton (gk)
Yellow Cards: Danning 71-
Red Cards: Nil
Adelaide United line-up: 1.Eugene GALEKOVIC (gk), 4.Jon McKAIN, 5.Daniel MULLEN, 6.CASSIO, 7.Zenon CARAVELLA, 8.Evgeniy LEVCHENKO (21.Francisco USUCAR 46-), 9.Sergio VAN DIJK, 10.Dario VIDOSIC, 16.Spase DILEVSKI, 22.Milan SUSAK (2.Osama MALIK 68-), 23.Andy SLORY (17.Iain RAMSAY 42-)
Substitutes not used: 20.Mark BIRIGHITTI (gk)
Yellow Cards: McKain 20-, Cassio 35-, Susak 47-
Red Cards: Nil
