{"id":4190,"date":"2011-02-13T09:27:02","date_gmt":"2011-02-12T23:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=4190"},"modified":"2011-02-13T09:28:51","modified_gmt":"2011-02-12T23:28:51","slug":"a-league-round-30-brisbane-roar-vs-gold-coast-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=4190","title":{"rendered":"A-League – Round 30 – Brisbane Roar vs Gold Coast United"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday night was a big homecoming for the Brisbane Roar.<\/p>\n

It was the first home game back at Suncorp Stadium since the Queensland Floods six weeks ago.\u00a0 It was also the final game of the regular season, an M1 Derby against the Gold Coast, and the night in which they would be presented with the Premiere’s Plate for finishing top of the league.\u00a0 The Undefeated Streak sits at 24 games but the Roar have never beaten Gold Coast which they were hoping to correct that night.\u00a0 A season-high crowd of 20,831 turned up for the occasion and they wouldn’t be disappointed.<\/p>\n

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\nSix weeks ago:\u00a0 Game abandoned, Suncorp flooded, venue closed.
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\nLast night:\u00a0 Back in business<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Socceroo’s manager Holga Osieck was in the corporate box next to ours.\u00a0 We had a quick chat at halftime and humbly suggested he had a few more Roar players to the national squad<\/em><\/a><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

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It was pretty much the perfect way to wrap up the season.\u00a0 Inside the opening five minutes of the game, Kosta Barbarouses, turned two Gold Coast defenders and curled in a shot from outside the box.\u00a0 It was a welcome return to the scoresheet for the Kiwi striker who hadn’t netted a goal for the Roar since the New Year.\u00a0 From that point onward, the Gold Coast were on the backfoot and wouldn’t recover for the rest of the game.<\/p>\n

The Roar piled on the pressure for the rest of the half, clearly not happy to just sit on their lead.\u00a0 On the stroke of halftime, they netted their second, a sweetly struck volley from Erik Paartalu that will be a contender for goal of the season.<\/p>\n

In the second half, Shane Smeltz came closest to scoring for Gold Coast when he fired a freekick that Theoklitos had to tip onto the crossbar.\u00a0 Otherwise, it was all one way traffic.\u00a0 Henrique scored the third goal for Brisbane just after the hour mark and the finally Thomas Broich wrapped things up with a demoralizing fourth goal that saw Matt McKay completely dismantle the United defenders and pass the ball to Broich who only had to tap the ball in from a couple of yards out.\u00a0 It was a dominating performance that emphatically cemented the Roar’s first ever victory over the Gold Coast.<\/p>\n

After the ref blew the full time whistle, the Roar were presented with the Premiere’s Plate, recognizing them as the A-League Premieres for 2010\/11.<\/p>\n

BRISBANE ROAR 4 – GOLD COAST UNITED 0<\/h2>\n

What a season!<\/p>\n