{"id":6103,"date":"2011-11-07T17:29:52","date_gmt":"2011-11-07T07:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=6103"},"modified":"2011-11-07T17:29:52","modified_gmt":"2011-11-07T07:29:52","slug":"a-league-201112-season-%e2%80%93-round-five-%e2%80%93-moral-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=6103","title":{"rendered":"A-League 2011\/12 Season \u2013 Round Five \u2013 Moral Victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Back Where It All Began<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Brisbane Roar travelled to Etihad Stadium for a big Saturday night clash against Harry Kewell and the Melbourne Victory in front of 24,000 fans.\u00a0 This away game would be the largest crowd that the Roar have played in front of this season.\u00a0 Melbourne were the last team to beat Brisbane back in September of 2010.\u00a0 And since then they also had a highly controversial 3-3 draw at Etihad last year where Brisbane equalized in injury time after Michael Theoklitos caught the ball outside the penalty area and booted it downfield to Matt McKay who scored in the dying seconds of the game.\u00a0 With that kind of history, you’d expect this game to be a cracker.\u00a0 The opening half did not disappoint.<\/p>\n

Brisbane Roar were awarded a penalty in the first minute of the game and Victory keeper Ante Covic was sent off for bringing down Besart Berisha when he was clean through.\u00a0 Henrique converted his third penalty in two weeks to give the Roar the lead.\u00a0 Then…uh, Archie Thompson happened.\u00a0 The Melbourne Victory striker suddenly found a purple patch of form and absolutely destroyed the Roar defence.\u00a0 I’d seen a few commentators remark that Roar defender Matt Jurman was possible a weak link in the back four and although I didn’t really see it then, it was certainly noticable in this game.\u00a0 Twice he was left for dead by Archie Thompson and both times the A-League’s most prolific striker made the Roar pay, giving the Victory an unlikely 2-1 lead with a man down.<\/p>\n

The lead didn’t last long however.\u00a0 Thomas Broich stepped up and cooly slotted home a free kick by tucking it under the feet of the jumping Victory wall.\u00a0 With the scores locked at 2-2 with 30 minutes gone, the game saw further drama when referee Ben Williams gave a straight red to Victory defender Matt Foschini, reducing them to 9 players.\u00a0 It was a dramatic first half to say the least.<\/p>\n

In the second half, the Victory parked the bus and put all nine men behind the ball and spent most of the game with none of their players playing any deeper than the edge of their penalty area.\u00a0 The Roar fired shot after shot but try as they might, they couldn’t break the resolute Victory defence.\u00a0 When the full time whistle blew, they celebrated a moral victory.\u00a0 For the Roar, they take home the consolation prize of extending their lead at the top of the table (Perth Glory lost to Newcastle Jets) and the unbeaten run is now up to 33 games.<\/p>\n

\n