Brisbane Roar Isuzu UTE A-League Head Coach, Ruben Zadkovich fronted the media following his sides 2-0 defeat at the hands of Auckland on the opening day of the 2024/25 season.
On the match:
“I’d like to watch it back before I say too much, I think it was an even game, very patchy.
There were some moments for us where I thought we did really well and started to control it but then there were also some sloppy moments I thought where we turned it over a little bit cheap and didn’t smell the danger but yeah it was a very even game but a couple of moments that went against us.”
“I definitely think we’ll be better off for that hit out and like I said before the game there’s so much room for this team to grow and wherever we’re at at the moment is is nowhere near the finished article.
We’ll take the positives from it, we’ll look at the game back and keep bringing the group together but yeah there’s positives to take for sure.”
READ MORE: Match Wrap – Auckland FC 1-0 Brisbane Roar
On giving youngsters Sam Klein and Ivan Ozzi a chance:
There’s nothing better than in my position than being able to reward young players that are fighting to become professional footballers and those two guys Sam Klein and especially Ivan Ozzi who’s lead our youth team this year and was a leading goal scorer he’s afantastic story he’s a great young man and it’s nice for him to get some minutes.
We wish that that moment was a more positive result for those two boys but we go home um with plenty to work on and plenty of positivity around the group.”
On Auckland FC:
“They’ve got a bit of an open chequebook at the moment so I dare say there’ll be some other teams that come here and find it difficult but again we were definitely in that game.
I think look at the first seven or eight minutes we had about two or three corners, down their end you know we just didn’t create that clearcut moment that we needed.
They went down the other end and you’ve got a guy who’s been at three World Cups overlapping around the outside and then rips a ball into a really dangerous area and that’s the moment quality, that’s the difference and those moments win games.
They’ve got a strong team, I think other teams will find it difficult and they’re a good side so we can’t be too hard on ourselves.
We just have to focus on the process of improvement, we have to focus on what we’re trying to build long term. We’ll only get better from this point on.”
MATCH DETAILS
Isuzu UTE A-League Men 2024/25 – Round 1: Auckland FC vs Brisbane Roar
Go Media Stadium, Auckland
Saturday, 19 October
Auckland FC – 1 (OWN GOAL 8’, Logan ROGERSON 75’)
Brisbane Roar – 0
