Brisbane Roar have suffered their first loss of the National Youth League season after a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Adelaide United this afternoon at Cleveland Showgrounds.
Brisbane Roar have suffered their first loss of the National Youth League season after a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Adelaide United this afternoon at Cleveland Showgrounds.
In the absence of James Donachie, Jason Geria and Corey Brown, who were all away on Qantas Young Socceroos duty, Jack Hingert and Kenneth Dougall were handed starts as the makeshift central defensive pair.
After an even opening contest, the away team found the back of the net first – Teeboy Kamara was quick to pounce on a cross from Fabien Barbiero to give his side a lead after 20 minutes.
Brisbane continued to press up the park and had their equaliser eight minutes before the break when Nick Fitzgerald provided striker Matt Thurtell with the ideal ball to slide under United ‘keeper Mark Birighitti.
In a bid to take all three points from the round two encounter, Roar coach John Sime made two half-time substitutions, replacing Hyundai A-League duo Rocky Visconte and James Meyer with Ross Archibald and Tomislav Cirjak.
However, it was the lively Thurtell who went closest to finding the back of the net again following a dazzling run down the left wing in the 65th minute.
His resulting shot bounced unluckily off the upright.
Two goals from Ricardo Da Silva and Jake Monaco in the last ten minutes of regular time denied Brisbane maximum points, while Adelaide enjoyed their first win of the campaign.
Coach Sime was still upbeat about the performance of his squad but admitted there was much room for improvement as the National Youth League season continues.
“You-ve always got to take the positives out of the game,” he said.
“I thought there were periods of the game where we did some good things – we moved the ball around well and created some opportunities for ourselves.
“We can-t make excuses, like we were missing some of our back four, and the boys have to learn from that.
“As much possession as we had, possession doesn-t win games and we didn-t play with conviction when we had possession which was the key”.
Brisbane Roar 1 (Matt THURTELL 38-)
Adelaide United 3 (Teeboy KAMARA 20-, Ricardo DA SILVA 82-, Jake MONACO 88-)
Saturday, 29 October 2011
Cleveland Showgrounds, Brisbane
Referee: Matt Skinner
Brisbane Roar: 1. Matthew ACTON (gk), 2. Alistair QUINN, 5. George LAMBADARIDIS, 7. Chris BUSH (c), 9. Matt THURTELL, 11. James MEYER (10. Tomislav CIRJAK 46-), 12. Luke BRATTAN, 13. Kenneth DOUGALL, 15. Nick FITZGERALD (16. Jake McLEAN 56-), 17. Jack HINGERT, 18. Rocky VISCONTE (6. Ross ARCHIBALD 46-)
Substitutes not used: 20. James ECCLES (gk)
Yellow cards: Nil
Red cards: Nil
Adelaide United: 1. Mark BIRIGHITTI (gk), 2. Jake MONACO, 5. Jonathon MAVROMATIS, 6. Michael MARKHAM, 7. Teeboy KAMARA (12. Ian KAMAU 56-), 8. Cameron WATSON, 9. Evan KOSTOPOULOS (c), 10. Ricardo DA SILVA, 14. Fabien BARBIERO (11. Dion KIRK 59-), 18. Nigel BOOGARD (4. Jordan ELSEY 59-), 19. Anthony GOLEC
Substitutes not used: 20. John HALL (gk)
Yellow cards: Cameron WATSON 53-
Red cards: Nil
