I could see something exciting was gripping Brisbane when I was stopped four times and asked when the kick-off time was before I got anywhere near the stadium.
There were plenty of Roar orange shirts dotted around the city centre which swelled considerably in Caxton Street for the traditional pre match beer. There were plenty of other football shirts around, reflecting the diversity of the beautiful game’s devotees! Finnish, Croatian, English, Aussie, Scottish tops were all over. Good to see the lower leagues represented alongside the Premier League teams too,
The interest in the game was obvious from the queues outside the stadium at the ticket office and, shock horror, all the programs had sold out at both vendors by the entrance! Worse, we even had to queue for beer which wasn’t expected.
The ground looked spectacular with plenty of orange and a healthy crowd. It looked like the expected 15,000 might be topped and this was confirmed when it was announced that the attendance was 20,725 – topping even the Broncos inaugural game at the same venue all those years ago.
The second minor flaw of the day came when the teams came out to no music although it was nice to see a lack of cheerleaders though – not a big fan of that American influence, although we did have the requisite mascot – a blue maned Lion called Roary.
The game started at a quick pace and it was the Roar who made all the early running, particularly through Jonathan Richter down the right hand side who was having plenty of success against his opposing full back.
The first clear cut chance for the home team came in the 28th minute when Richter forced a save from former Leeds keeper Danny Milosevic. However, the best chance of the first half came five minutes later when Alex Brosque met a McKay cross with his head and was just wide of the mark with the keeper beaten.
By this stage Brownlie had already been booked for a late tackle on Tambouras and Dodd joined him in the ref’s book in the 34th minute when clashing with a Knight. Still not sure what the ref’s problem was with the challenge.
The fans were in good cheer at half time, sensing goals weren’t far away.
The second half started with the Knights asking a few questions of the Roar defence but the first chance of the half fell to the Roar with Richter again drawing a save from Milosevic before Buess shot over the bar.
The tide turned in the Roar’s favour when Baird came on for Brownlie in the 53rd minute. Baird’s abrasive style immediately caused problems for the Knights’ lumbering centre halves. However this period of possession failed to create any real chances as the Roar were taking one touch too many around the box and failing to find any end product.
Miron Bleiberg made another two changes for the Roar on the hour mark with Warren Moon coming on for Karl Dodd and Tae-Yong Shin coming on for Matt McKay. Richter swapped flanks to the left, Brosque moved out to the right wing with Shin and Baird leading the line.
This clearly signalled Queensland’s intent to win the game with four strikers on the pitch and it started to show. The Roar began to look in a different league to the Knights, with lovely ball control and quick passing. First Brosque had a shot parried away by Milosevic before Shin contrived to fail to score from a yard when Richter beat Milosevic to a loose ball in the box and clipped it into the six yard box where Shin made minimal contact and the ball was cleared by Hay.
However, on 80 minutes a breakaway by Baird was halted by the NZ defence only for the ball to break to Brosque 25 yards out who hit a first time left foot shot into the net to send the crowd wild.
NZ almost equalized three minutes later when they got the ball in the back of the net only for it to be ruled out for a foul on Willis.
The Roar punished NZ further a few minutes later when Baird beat Milosevic to a poor back pass and rolled the ball into an empty net. Cue more wild scenes and the crowd chanting “we are top of the league; say we are top of the league”!
Given the 5-0 thrashing of the Knights in pre-season this was a must win game for the Roar but Bleiberg will have been happy with the performance.
Match Ratings
Atmosphere: 7 Good start with some hard core singers dotted around the place but mainly behind the goal – keep it up lads!
Crowd: 9 An excellent attendance for the first game and hopefully the crowds will keep coming
Tannoy bloke: 2 Shut up till half time mate! There’s a game going on!!
Roary: 6 Good first effort. Do a few cartwheels and land on your arse next time.
Result: 9 Broncos managed 7 in a row before they were beaten. Something to aim at….
Referee: 6 Mr Breeze had a good afternoon which did involve a bit of niggle between the two teams but I couldn’t bring myself to give a ref more than 6.
Team Ratings
Willis 7 Dealt with pretty much everything that the Knights threw at him although there were one or two 'misunderstandings' with his defence
Gava 7 Combined well with the rest of the back four.
Gibson 8 Marshalled the back line well
Buess 7 Quietly effective, good deliveries going forward
Dodd 7 Had a little more trouble than the other defenders but still a promising start.
McKay 7 Worked tirelessly down the left hand side in the first half but could have crossed the ball quicker - the one time he did almost resulted in a goal
Murdocca 8 The creative spark in the midfield although did persist a few times down blind alleys
Hyuk-Su Seo 7 Held the midfield well although needed to find a decisive ball a few times
Richter 9 Caused chaos down the right in the first half and after he switched wings in the second half. Created a superb chance for Shin with sheer persistence. MAN OF THE MATCH
Brownlie 7 Worked hard but was unable to escape the shackles of Emblen and Hay
Brosque 8 The pick of the strikers. Capped off an impressive performance with a superb goal
Substitutes
Baird 8 Gave the Roar added impetus when he came on and caused problems for the Knights’ defence
Moon 7 NZ were fairly quiet in attack whilst he was on but that was more due to the attack
Shin 6 Played well but missed a chance he (or my granny for that matter) would have scored 99 times out of 100
