Roar keep marching on

They came. They saw. They conquered. Gold Coast United had a plan to bring down the champions in last night’s M1 Derby, but unfortunately for Bleiberg’s men Brisbane found a way to win once again.

The Roar’s 3-0 victory continued the club’s three-game winning streak without conceding a goal and extended their undefeated run to 31 straight games.

Gold Coast were hungry to taste success having drawn their two previous matches.

So where better to get their first W of the season than in the heart of Brisbane against their Queensland rivals.

But it wasn’t to be.

The response after the match from Gold Coast United coach Miron Bleiberg, summed up the team’s frustration over the loss.

“Now I feel dumb that we have come here like all the other coaches and all the other teams and said ‘Oh we could have done...’ but in the end we got beaten and the Roar keep marching on,” he said.

“But we have to cop it.”

Gold Coast came to Suncorp Stadium with a clear strategy. They pressed forward, played an up-tempo style and tried to force Brisbane to send it long against their desire to play from the back. 

In the first half, the plan was working too. Despite being a goal down, for the first time in a long time, Brisbane looked nervous, and indeed did send it long on a few occasions.

Though bitter rivals Roar coach Ange Postecoglou was eager to give credit where credit was due.

“There’s no doubt they will cause a lot of teams problems.

“They worked really hard early on to try and shut us down playing, and knocked us off our rhythm a little bit.

“It wasn’t a great performance in terms of the kind of footballing standards we set, so there’s still stuff for us to work on,” he said.

Though as Gold Coast captain and Socceroo Michael Thwaite conceded, the visitors struggled to keep up the pressure for the entire match.

“We can’t do it for 60-70 minutes and then let the pressure off,” he said.

Brisbane are proving to be the biggest headache for other teams and coaches in the Hyundai A-League, but Thwaite was certain that with a bit of improvement his team’s strategy could have brought the black and orange to their knees.

“We’ve got to work on our own fitness, our own organisation to try and do it for 90 minutes and that’s how we’ll beat them,” the Gold Coast captain said.

Bleiberg didn't back away from suggestions that the Roar got the rub of the green when it came to refereeing decisions.

“The ratio of decisions was ten to one against us,

“It probably was a bit cruel, but that’s the luck of the champions,” he said.

There are positive signs for the beachside squad. The loss of injured aerial master Ante Rozic  up front to finish from the crosses hurt United, but Dutch A-League debutant Maceo Rigters put on a stunning display for his team. Rigters was involved in every push forward, setting up plays as well as creating them for himself, like his impressive 22nd minute floating strike with three defenders hanging off him. Watch this space, Gold Coast are onto a winner with this guy.

For now though, Brisbane just keep on truckin’. Another game, another win. And it doesn’t look like they have any intentions of slowing down.