A change of luck – and three points – can’t come quickly enough
Michael Valkanis is under no illusions about the size of the task that awaits his team. If Brisbane Roar are to make the finals this season, they probably need to start with a win over the Western Sydney Wanderers.
It’s hard to pinpoint quite where things have gone wrong since the turn of the new year.
Playing four games within the space of ten days at the start of January – including last weekend’s rescheduled Round 20 clash against Melbourne City – didn’t help.
Nor did losing skipper Jay O’Shea for weeks to an ankle injury in the wake of that 1-0 defeat at AAMI Park.
And the injury curse has continued, with strikers Chris Long and Nick D’Agostino – who both looked menacing in the 1-1 draw with Perth Glory last time out – the latest to succumb to injuries.
They’ll join long-term absentee Milorad Stajic on the sidelines, with the influential midfielder forced to have surgery on his hamstring after injuring himself in the warm-up at Coopers Stadium in December.
And it was Adelaide who inflicted more misery on the Roar in late January, twice coming from behind to win 3-2 in that crazy defeat at Suncorp Stadium.
“If I was still working in Greece, they would have brought a priest in to bless the place!” head coach Valkanis told me in the build-up to this week’s must-win clash with Western Sydney.
“It’s just one of those things where we’ve got to keep working, keep pushing through, and opportunities will be given to some other players who are going to need to push us forward.”
Quite who those players will be remains to be seen, although the good news is that Jay O’Shea is back and bossing the midfield once again.
With any luck Henry Hore will be back soon too, and after watching the on-loan D’Agostino hit the crossbar from point-blank range in that frustrating draw with Perth Glory a fortnight ago – before succumbing to what looked like a serious knee injury soon after – fans in orange could be forgiven for hoping that’s the end of Brisbane Roar’s terrible luck for the season.
“We had such a good start to the season – a really good start – and I believe we became the most relevant team in the competition,” Valkanis said.
“But it’s been a complete change since the turn of the year, with all of these injuries and this bad luck and some of the decisions that haven’t gone our way.”
There’s no doubt the bounce of the ball hasn’t favoured Brisbane Roar during this barren run – take Adelaide’s ridiculous stoppage-time winner in January, or the huge deflection on Tiago Quintal’s winner for Sydney FC three weeks ago – but Valkanis is the first to acknowledge that’s all the past.
The only thing that matters now is points, and with 18 still to play for and the top six far from settled, it starts with a crunch game against a Wanderers side currently propping up the ladder.
“I think the most important thing is to take it game by game,” Valkanis said of his team’s run home – the next four games of which are at Suncorp Stadium.
“I don’t look it as how many points we mathematically need to make the top six.
“I believe in the team and where we’re at, and we’ll just try and secure as many wins as possible.”
The cause has no doubt been helped by Newcastle’s 2-1 win over Western Sydney last weekend, which left the Wanderers rooted to the bottom of the standings.
A win over the team from Parramatta would put Brisbane Roar within touching distance of the top six with another home game 11th-placed Wellington Phoenix to come next week.
“That’s what makes football so exciting,” Valkanis said.
“We have the players to step up and a team that can carry us all the way to the finals, but we just need to keep creating chances and, most importantly, put them in the back of the net.”
They’ve been the unluckiest team in the league all season, in my opinion.
What price a change of luck – and three points – in the most vital game of the season?
Mike Tuckerman
About Mike Tuckerman: Mike is a freelance football journalist and long-time Brisbane Roar watcher. He has written for the ABC, The Guardian, Australian Football Weekly, Football Australia and theroar.com.au.
