The second match of the A-League for the Roar was a tricky away tie with Adelaide United, who had also won on the opening weekend with a 1-0 away win at the Newcastle Jets.
Adelaide, under ex-Brisbane Strikers manager John Kosmina, have adopted a similar attacking style to the Roar and are also the only other team in the A-League to have five strikers in their 20 man squad.
The game started at a furious pace and the first significant chance of the game fell to Jonti Richter who put a shot into the side netting after being put clear by Alex Brosque. A shot across the face of the goal rather than going for the near post may have caused more problems, however.
It wasn’t all one way traffic however and Travis Dodd forced Willis to pull of an excellent save from a driven shot.
The best chance of the second half fell to Spase Dilevski, making his first appearance of the season in place of Royce Brownlie, who struck a curling left foot shot but unfortunately struck the post with Beltrame well beaten. Jonti Richter was first to the rebound and bundled it through the keeper’s legs but the goal was ruled out for offside. Subsequent replays showed that Richter was in line with the last defender when the ball was played.
After 41 minutes Alex Brosque also went close. A delightful ball lofted over the Adelaide defence from the excellent Hyuk-Su Seo fell nicely into Brosque’s path but he failed to hit the target.
Deep into injury time Adelaide had their best chance of the game when captain Ross Aloisi hit the post with a dipping volley that had Willis well beaten. Thankfully he was able to snap up the rebound.
The second half saw Adelaide make most of the early running and Chad Gibson was called upon early on to deny Louis Brain with an excellently timed tackle.
A minute later and Adelaide should have taken the lead when the ball fell to Travis Dodd 8 yards out but thankfully he missed the target.
The game entered a lull period for the next ten minutes with only a few long range chances from Murdocca and Richter – neither of which tested the keeper. At this point Bleiberg started to ring the changes with Dilevski, who had impressed on his debut, making way for Michael Baird.
Despite this Adelaide continued to create chances with a long shot from Ross Aloisi well saved by Willis and the rebound was put over by Veart.
On 65 minutes Reece Tollenaere was brought on for Jonti Richter who had tired visibly in the second half and Tollenaere was immediately into the action when played in by Murdocca but that was just a little bit too much pace on the ball and the keeper was able to get out and block his shot.
The game continued to be very close with chances falling to both sides to grab the three points. Louis Brain shot just wide after some good Adelaide pressure on 72 minutes before Hyuk-Su Seo shot just over from long range.
The last few chances of the match fell to the Roar with excellent work by Tollenaere to cut the ball into the box but there was no-one there to provide the final touch.
A draw was probably a fair result in the long run but both sides had chances to win it. The Roar will be happy with the away point but with better finishing and more penetration they could have won this game.
Match Ratings
Atmosphere: 8 The Adelaide crowd made a lot of noise despite the small crowd
Crowd: 5 One of the smallest crowds so far
Tannoy bloke: 2 Shut up till half time mate! There’s a game going on!!
Result: 6 With the number of chances that the Roar had they would have been disappointed not to get three points
Referee: 5 Ben Williams was a little card happy and although it was a fairly fractious match, several cards could have been avoided
Player Ratings (4-3-3)
Willis 8 Much more accomplished performance and made several excellent saves.
Buess 7 Combined well with Richter
Gibson 7 Another accomplished performance and made several key tackles
McLaughlin 7 Better performance and finished the match almost Terry Butcher like with his head strapped up after a clash with Bugeja
Dodd 6 Worried by his namesake continually and also picked up a booking for his involvement in a multi-player scuffle
Seo 8 Impressive performance. Won plenty of 50/50s and distributed the ball well. Had a few long range efforts which were not far off the target. He also created the best chance of the match for Brosque with a sublime ball. Man of the Match.
McKay 8 Hard working performance although tired towards the end
Murdocca 8 The birthday boy had a good game and was involved a lot
Richter 7 Had a few early chances but found the going tougher against full backs with more pace
Dilveski 7 Good running with the ball and almost scored when he hit the woodwork in the second half
Brosque 6 Kept quiet by a strong Adelaide defence but should have scored when put through by Seo. He also picked up a stupid booking for back-chat
Baird 6 Very quiet and always seemed to take one touch too many
Tollenaere 7 First appearance for Tollenaere and he created a number of chances with his pace
