Brisbane Roar will take on Melbourne Victory at CB Smith Reserve this Sunday as they look to finish their season on a high note in the Liberty A-League and put one over 4th place Melbourne Victory.
Melbourne Victory have lost only two of their last eight Liberty A-League matches against Brisbane, although their most recent defeat against the Roar was the last time they met in Victoria.
Brisbane Roar are winless in their last three matches outside Queensland so will be looking to break this pattern.
These teams last met at Perry Park on February 11 where the match ended in a 1-1 draw after a stunner by Shea Connors.
In the 20th minute, Beatrice Goud was fouled just inside the 18-yard box by Brisbane defence that gave away a penalty for Alex Chidiac to place to the left of goal.
Just a minute later, Shea Connors gained control of the ball to swivel around Victory defence and tucked the ball away in the top right corner, just out of Casey Dumont’s reach to equalise the score line.
The Roar are currently in ninth place after a three-point deduction last week threatened their bid for a top 4 finish. The loss against WSW last weekend ending all hope of finishing within the top four.
Melbourne Victory are currently fourth on the ladder and will aim to keep their spot there without a setback by Brisbane this weekend.
Shea Connors has been directly involved in each of Brisbane’s last five goals in the Liberty A-League competition, scoring four of them and assisting one.
This is the longest streak of direct goal involvements by any Brisbane Roar player in the competition since the beginning of the 2015/2016 season.
Kijah Stephenson has been in the starting line-up two weeks in a row now, and the young forward feels like she is growing in confidence after bouncing back from a quad strain that took her out of the game for ten weeks.
“I’ve had a bit of a rough start to the season, so to be able to get back into training and be trusted to start on the field by the team and the coach, it definitely builds confidence,” Stephenson said.
After the departure of Katrina Gorry and Kajsa Lind from the club, Stephenson feels as though it has provided younger and less experienced players like herself an opportunity to step up.
“It’s obviously a big loss, they’re both great players. I think it’s wonderful that they’ve gone off to continue to grow and pursue their own career, but I also think that it gives players like myself, inexperienced younger players, an opportunity to step up and fulfill the shoes that they’ve left,” she said.
“Nothing has changed, we’re still going out with a positive mindset. We’re just trying to take the last six points that we can get.”
Forward Sharn Freier is confident in her squad to finish the season on a high note with two rounds remaining and is determined to kick that off with a win against Melbourne Victory this Sunday.
“With two games to go, the main focus is to obviously finish strong and there’s still points up for grabs so to be able to grab them would be really good,” Freier said.
“I’m pretty confident with the squad that we’ve got and the talent that they have to get the job done for us,” she added.
“It’ll definitely be a tough game, they’re fourth so they’re heading into the finals, that’s their goal, so for us to be able to come out strong and take points off them would be ideal for us.”
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