Brisbane Roar’s talismanic midfielder Thomas Broich remains in doubt for tomorrow night’s clash with Melbourne Heart at Suncorp Stadium, but Head Coach Ange Postecoglou remains confident his side still has enough fire power to return to the winner’s circle.
Brisbane Roar-s talismanic midfielder Thomas Broich remains in doubt for tomorrow night-s clash with Melbourne Heart at Suncorp Stadium, but Head Coach Ange Postecoglou remains confident his side still has enough fire power to return to the winner-s circle.
Brisbane-s 36-game unbeaten run came to an end last week at the hands of Sydney FC at Kogarah and Postecoglou-s men will this week look to bounce back against a Heart side coming off a win against the Wellington Phoenix in Morwell.
Postecoglou said he would leave a final decision on Broich-s fitness until match day but, with three games scheduled in a week, said he wouldn-t risk the German if he wasn-t “close to 100 per cent”.
With a stable of youngsters waiting on the fringes for their opportunity to shine, Postecoglou said he didn-t believe his side would miss anything from the German-s continued absence.
“People like Kofi (Danning) and Rocky Visconte will come into it, they-ve been working pretty hard at training,” Postecoglou said.
“If Thomas isn-t right it-ll be an opportunity for one of them, definitely on the bench.
“We-ve got some options, we can throw some of the young guys in and give them an opportunity, that-s what they-ve been working for.
“We-re quite confident whatever happens we-ll be fielding a strong enough team to win the game.
To add to the doubt over Broich, James Meyer (groin) and Henrique (cork) will also be unavailable for the Suncorp Stadium clash.
Questions have been posed this week about how Postecoglou-s side would react to their first loss in over 450 days, but the Roar mentor said a return to Brisbane-s trademark style should put aside any questions marks hanging over his side.
“What we-ll do is what we-ve done and that is getting to playing our dominating, attacking football, being aggressive and not worrying about the results,” he said.
“Not worrying about our wins and loss columns but just getting back to playing our football.
“If we do that, as shown in the past, everything else will take care of itself.”
Brisbane captain Matt Smith echoed the sentiments of his coach, believing the players were primed to use the lessons from last week to turn in an improved performance this week against the Heart.
“We-ve always been about performances, we don-t really look at the scoreboard,” Smith said.
“We always work on the performance first, that-s something that-s been installed in us from day one.
“That-s probably the most disappointing thing is that we didn-t perform (against Sydney) the way that we usually play.
“I guess it doesn-t happen very often, but for us it hurts.
“We are going to make sure we get that performance right tomorrow.”
Brisbane Roar take on Melbourne Heart on Friday, 9 December at Suncorp Stadium, kick off is at 7pm.
Brisbane Roar v Melbourne Heart
Friday, 9 December 2011
Venue: Suncorp Stadium
Local Kick Off: 7:00 pm
Referee: Kris Griffiths Jones
Head-to-Head: All matches (played 3): Brisbane Roar wins 3, Melbourne Heart wins 0 (0
draws)
Brisbane Roar Squad: 1. Michael Theoklitos (GK), 2. Matt Smith (Capt.), 3. Shane Stefanutto, 4. Matt Jurman , 5. Ivan Franjic, 6. Erik Paaratlu, 7. Besart Berisha, 8. Massimo Murdocca, 9. Kofi Danning, 11. Issey Nakajima-Farran, 14. Rocky Visconte, 16. Mohamed Adnan, 17. Mitch Nichols, 18. Luke Brattan, 19. Jack Hingert, 22. Thomas Broich, 30. Matt Acton (GK). *two to be omitted*
In: 9. Kofi Danning (promoted), 14. Rocky Visconte (promoted), 19. Jack Hingert (promoted), 22. Thomas Broich (returns from heel injury)
Out: 21. James Meyer (adductor injury – 1 week), 10. Henrique (impact injury)
Unavailable: Nil
Melbourne Heart Squad: 1.Clint Bolton (gk), 2.Michael Marrone, 3.Brendan Hamill, 5.Fred, 6.Matt Thompson, 7.Rutger Worm, 9.Maycon, 10.Wayne Srhoj, 11.Alex Terra. 13.Jonatan Germano, 15.David Williams, 16.Aziz Behich, 17.Jason Hoffman, 18.Curtis Good, 19.Eli Babalj, 23.Mate Dugandzic, 25.Adrian Madaschi, 30.Sebastian Mattei (gk)
*three to be omitted*
In: Wayne Srhoj (returns from suspension), Alex Terra (returns from injury), David Williams (promoted)
Out: Nil
Unavailable: Nick Kalmar (back – four weeks), Kliment Taseski (fractured foot – long term)
