ADELAIDE UNITED 5 WELLINGTON PHOENIX 1

BRISBANE ROAR 3 PERTH GLORY 1

CENTRAL COAST MARINERS 2 SYDNEY FC 1

MELBOURNE HEART 4 MELBOURNE VICTORY 0

WESTERN SYDNEY WANDERERS 0 NEWCASTLE JETS 2

We’re Pretty Bad, Perth Are Even Worse

Brisbane Roar snapped their three game winless streak at home against a turgid Perth Glory last week.  It was a game in which we lacked the speed and fluency that brought us so many goals and wins at the start of the season and we looked creaky at the back.  Perth Glory had no less than 3 chances in the opening five minutes where they were clear through on goals but they failed to capitalize on a single chance.  Brisbane Roar aren’t quite firing on all cylinders at the moment but Perth Glory are playing like a team that know they’ll finish bottom of the table even with six rounds to go.

The highlight video at the top of this post tells the story.  Our first goal is reasonable.  The second goal is ridiculous keystone cops stuff.  By the time we score our third goal, Perth Glory’s defence appears to have stopped trying.  And then for good measure, we give away an absolutely stupid goal for no reason.

The club has chopped and changed managers many, many times in the past three years but the reputation of the club being run by the locker room remains.  One suspects that Kenny Lowe won’t survive the season as manager but surely the man who has to go for the club to successfully start rebuilding is their sometimes captain/sometimes left-out-of-the-squad-entirely midfielder Jacob Burns.

This weekend, Brisbane Roar play Adelaide United at home.  Its been billed as a potential preview of the Grand Final.  I don’t know about that exactly but I have a feeling that Adelaide, who are in red hot form, are going to absolutely kick our asses.  I hope I’m wrong but I think we’re far from playing our best football and Adelaide seem to have the measure of us at the moment.  Once upon a time, a new signing at Brisbane Roar named Besart Berisha scored a six minute hattrick for the Roar when they demolished Adelaide 7-1 at home two seasons ago.  We haven’t beaten them at Suncorp since then.

News and Notes

• Somehow, the Socceroos threw away a 3-0 lead to lose 4-3 against Ecuador in a friendly yesterday
• Who would want to bet on Wellington Phoenix games?  Their current form is 5-0 (W), 0-5 (L), 4-1 (W), 1-5 (L)
• All of our teams in the Asian Champions League continue to suck.  Central Coast, Melbourne Victory and Western Sydney Wanderers all lost in their opening matches.  To date, only Adelaide have found success in Asia where in 2008 they inexplicably made it all the way to the finals
• Who can stop the Melbourne Heart?  They’re actually going to bounce back from 17 matches without a win to qualifying for the finals, aren’t they?
• In a season where the quality of the play on the field in the A-League has plateaued, it seems disappointing to think the FFA is going to strip away one foreign player allowance from the 2016 season (down from 5 to 4).
• Suncorp Stadium becomes the first A-League venue to introduce a gluten free option in the canteens.  I don’t care about gluten but I am just happy if they had an option to serve food that wasn’t ridiculously deep fried and fatty.