Strikers Too Good For Rochedale

Thursday 4th Feb, 2010

The new-look Brisbane Strikers produced another impressive pre-season performance last night, notching their third consecutive Silver Boot tournament victory with a 1-0 defeat of their old rivals, Brisbane Premier League side Rochedale Rovers.

The margin was much ‘skinnier’ than last week’s 7-0 demolition of the Ipswich Knights, but in many ways the performance of Stuart McLaren’s young team was just as convincing. The Strikers dominated long periods of the game – the more so the longer it went - but had to wait until a late Gareth Musson goal to secure the win that their efforts had deserved.

It was apparent from the kick-off that the game would be keenly contested, with both sets of players rushing into tackles and with the level and volume of “talk” between team mates noticeably more intense than had been the case when the Strikers played Capalaba and the Knights in the earlier rounds.

Rochedale, whose attack was led by former Brisbane Striker Steve Unsworth, had the better opportunities to score in the opening fifteen or twenty minutes, with Unsworth himself having three shots on goal from distance. However, the burly front man was unable to direct any of them on target to trouble Brendan White in the Strikers’ goal.

The Strikers, however, were the first team to create a scoring opportunity closer in to goal when skipper Chay Hews carved open the Rovers defence with a through-ball to Musson, only to see Musson uncharacteristically miss the target from probably less than ten metres when one-one-one with Rovers goalkeeper Mario Aparicio.

On the half-hour Musson came desperately close to redeeming himself after Brad McDonald got away from the Rovers defence down the Strikers’ left touchline and produced a cross that found Musson racing into the penalty area. Musson’s volley on the run was hit with considerable venom and looked goalbound, but hit Aparicio, who might not have known much about it, on his right leg to stay out of the goal.

Late in the first half Rochedale came back into the contest after a quiet spell, with White having to save a shot from midfielder Rhys Hastings, before producing probably the save of the match to deny the same player who had arrived at the back post to accept a cross from Rochedale’s left touchline. Hastings had time to pick his spot before blasting a shot from ten yards that went almost straight at White, who nevertheless did well to get his hands up and parry the ball away to safety.

That ended the action of a first half that, while quite even on chances created, had seen the Strikers gradually gaining the ascendancy in terms of possession and territory.

That trend was to continue and accentuate in the second half as the younger Strikers team, looking sharper and better organised than Rochedale, moved the ball around with poise and assurance, forcing their opponents to spend long periods defending. As the half wore on Rochedale’s counter-attacks lacked penetration as the speedy McDonald nullified anything the Rovers attempted to construct down the right side of their attack and first Reagan Alder, and then Rylan Sadler, dealt admirably with the threat of Rochedale’s substitute Cody Lovell down the left. And while Jason Shade and Matija Simic had just the occasional awkward moment with the canny Unsworth, they were basically in control of anything that came through the middle.

Strikers midfielder Michael Angus came close to getting the opening goal midway through the second half when, pouncing on a lay-off from a team mate on the edge of the Rovers’ penalty area, he hit a scorching drive that had Aparicio at full stretch before the shot hit the side netting of his goal.

The Strikers were beginning to penetrate down both wings, with Musson and fellow forward Sean Burke drifting into wide positions and fullbacks McDonald and Sadler occasionally overlapping to good effect as Rochedale’s defence toiled to cope with the tide of ball coming their way. Substitute Myles Carseldine was the next player to benefit from a lay-off, uncoiling a left-footed strike from about fifteen yards that Aparicio was able to gather in quite comfortably.

The Strikers momentarily lived dangerously when a Rovers free kick was played wide to their left. From the resulting cross and aerial battle a Rovers player pounced on the scraps to fire in a shot that would probably have passed just wide of White’s right post had it not been for the outstretched leg of Rovers forward Jake McLean deflecting it narrowly over the crossbar.

But shortly afterwards, with ten minutes remaining, the Strikers got the match-winning goal when Simic, now playing a little further forward in midfield, read the play perfectly to intercept a Rovers pass and drive forward through the centre circle before slicing the Rovers’ back line open with a pass to the left to Musson, who was striding through on goal. This time Musson got his one-on-one bearings right, coolly tucking the ball past the advancing Aparicio for his seventh goal of the tournament to date.

While there would be no further goals, and the Strikers were untroubled to hold on to their lead as the unusually sluggish Rovers failed to seriously trouble White, there was still time for Strikers forward Sean Burke to produce a moment of individual brilliance, accepting the ball with his back to goal and his angles tight before spinning around to leave a defender in his wake and drive a shot towards the far post that was scooped away to safety by the desperate lunge of a Rovers defender.

The win leaves the Strikers contemplating a semi-final match against their arch rivals of the past two QSL seasons, Brisbane Olympic.

Strikers coach Stuart McLaren agreed after the match with the suggestion that his side had deserved their win.

“It’s hard sometimes to see it objectively”, he said. “In the first half there were some moments for both teams, and when you are fresh in the first half there is a bit of an arm wrestle, so to speak, going on. But certainly once the game wore on a little bit, and after five or ten minutes of the second half, I thought we probably were the better side on the balance of chances - and I’m glad for the boys because obviously it was a strong test tonight and they’ve come up trumps again. So it was another step in the right direction”.

And, while admitting there were one or two moments when his team’s defending was “a little bit naive”, McLaren also was prepared to hand out some praise for his centre back pairing of Simic and Shade.

“I was very impressed with big Jason”, he said. “It was a situation where he took the whole of 2009 to get over his cruciate ligament damage of 2008, and now we are seeing what the lad is truly capable of. And I’m pleased for Matija Simic because against Capalaba he had an uncertain sort of a night, but tonight at centre half and later in the game when we pushed him into the holding role in midfield he showed that he is a young player with some promise”.

Brisbane Strikers 1 (Musson, 80) v Rochedale Rovers 0