Brisbane Roar, Wellington Phoenix share points

Wellington did just enough to hush the Roar, holding off the undefeated champions to a 1-1 draw at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

At their last game in the fortress of Suncorp, Brisbane leaked an early goal against Adelaide, drawing gasps from the home crowd. But this time it would be different. It took just over ten minutes for Brisbane to get their first goal on the scoreboard.

A soft free awarded by referee Jared Gillett set up German whiz Thomas Broich whose signature cross found Besart Berisha completely unmarked. A well-directed header from the Albanian import buried the ball in the net and gave Brisbane the 1-0 lead. 

A crowd of 16,428 tonight. Roar want you.

Minutes later, with Brisbane keeping the ball well inside the Phoenix half, a through ball from Olyroo Matthew Jurman to Besart Berisha saw the A-League’s leading goal-scorer shimmy past the Phoenix ‘keeper Anthony Warner to roll it in goal. But the official’s flag was up, much to the dismay of the fired up Berisha, and the goal was disallowed for offside. 

The contest heated up and tempers flared as Phoenix tried to slow the Roar down. In the process however, Wellington earned their fair share of yellow cards and fouls by putting hits on Brisbane reminiscent of those found across the ditch at a rugby match. 

The Phoenix were seldom found in the forward third. Forced wide by the Roar defence, Wellington relied on curling kicks into the goal square for their offensive push toward goal. It appeared ineffective for much of the first half, but in the 36th minute it all clicked for the visitors. Leo Bertos’ cross from the left of the pitch flew across the face of goal to find Nicholas Ward. Ward then took only two touches to get his low cross back to Tim Brown who equalised the game, putting it away from close range. 

With the game still locked up after the break, the Phoenix could taste an upset. Wellington came out with greater intention as uncharacteristic errors creeped into the defending champions’ game. 

The Roar soon settled but they were far less methodical in producing their attacking options with Phoenix packing the box and pressing when not in possession. 

The frustration began to show on the faces of Brisbane fans and players alike as chances went begging. In the 65th minute Broich’s strike off an Ivan Franjic cross was well saved by Manny Muscat in front of his ‘keeper. Moments later Broich’s through ball to set up Berisha was just inches too heavy for the darting striker to get to. 

Substitute Kofi Danning and Issey Nakajim-Farran then missed two sitters from close range within a few minutes of each other, as the undefeated Roar began to feel the pressure.

At full time, despite desperate last minute efforts from both sides, neither could break the 1-1 deadlock, and the points were shared.

Though not a win, the draw sees Brisbane continue their undefeated streak to 34 matches, and remain undefeated at Suncorp this season. Wellington can be proud of their performance, but though sharing points, they continue to languish at the bottom of the Hyundai A-League ladder.

Brisbane Roar:

THEOKLITOS, Michael. SMITH, Matt. STEFANUTTO, Shane. JURMAN, Matthew. FRANJIC, Ivan. PAARTALU, Erik. BERISHA, Besart. MURDOCCA, Massimo. HENRIQUE. NAKAJIMA-FARRAN, Issey. BROICH, Thomas. 

Subs:

DANNING, Kofi. ADNAN, Mohamed. BRATTAN, Luke. ACTON, Matt. 

Wellington Phoenix:

MUSCAT, Emmanuel. LOCHHEAD, Tony. BROWN, Tim. BERTOS, Leo. GREENACRE, Chris. WARD, Nicholas. SIGMUND, Ben. WARNER, Anthony. DURANTE, Andrew. SMITH, Alex. CORTES, Daniel.

Subs:

GRIFFITHS, Brent. SANCHEZ, Daniel. TSATTALIOS, Nikolas. PASTON, Mark.

PLAYER OF THE MATCH

3 POINTS: Manny Muscat

2 POINTS: Besart Berisha

1 POINT: Tim Brown