Set Piece Suicide As Roar Take The Points

Western Sydney looked to snap a 7 game streak of failing to beat the Brisbane Roar in a rain soaked game in Parramatta tonight, but couldn't manage it, giving up a pair of simple set piece goals and not taking advantage of the chances in attack.

Lachlan Brook and Nicolas Milanovic were rewarded with a return to the starting lineup in the week they were called up for the Australian U23 team for their U23 Asian Cup & Olympic Qualifiers tournament. The joint top scorers for Western Sydney will subsequently miss out on the final 3 games of the season, and possibly the first week of the finals depending on the progression of the team in Qatar.

The Wanderers dominated the early stages, racking up as much as an 80% possession rate in the first 15. Brook almost scored from a deflection, the ball tacking a significant deviation off the defender and forcing a good save from Macklin Freke. Brisbane dug in and held out, and in the 20th minute should have taken the lead when he had back to back gilt edged changes within 40 seconds. The first he was unmarked on the end of a cut-back following the Wanderers failing to clear that he skied over the bar, and a duplicate effort when Lawrence Thomas mislaid a simple pass out of his own area.

Milanovic had a chance of his own on a second ball following a corner, Marcelo had stayed up for the long distance cross and touched it on for a left footed strike the winger fired into the side netting. Henry Hore attempted an audacious backheel but couldn't generate enough power to get it past Thomas. The back & forth continued, the Wanderers having the better of the ball but the Roar dangerous on the counter and on the few occasions they were able to play through the Wanderers press.

Brisbane opened the scoring against the run of play in the 33rd minute, the simplest of headers from Tom Aldred after an in-swinging corner from O'Shea, the Brisbane Captain rose to score his first goal of the season he monstered Tom Beadling and Marcelo couldn't get across to help 

In the form that Milanovic is in, it was incomprehensible that he didn't hit back immediately. Brook stormed into the penalty area and delivered a perfect low cross to the back stick where Milanovic was completely unmarked, 6 yards out from goal and with Freke nowhere in sight, the finish should have been automatic but instead he got himself in a huge mess and blazed it wide of the open net.

It was the last good chance of the half, one which Wanderers fans would be all too familiar with. Set piece defence going missing, the striker going missing and the other attackers losing their shooting boots, mucking about at the back with Thomas losing possession and giving up multiple chances.

There were no changes at the break but the Wanderers came out with an aggressive mindset, the opening 5 minutes were dominated by the home side, they put together multiple attacks, won a corner but ultimately couldn't find the killer final ball to get a clean sight at goal. With the rain teeming down it was incumbent on the Red & Black to take the game by the scruff of the neck to avoid losing the game with an early stoppage.

Gabriel Cleur came on in the 52nd minute, a forced chance with Jorrit Hendrix suffering a knock chasing the ball down not long before the substitution. Sonny Kittel picked up a card for dissent before he was replaced with Brook following as well. Milos Ninkovic and Dylan Pierias coming on to try and inject some attacking flavour following a dire match thus far. Tom Beadling almost made up for his defensive lapse in the first half with a quality header. Brisbane could only clear it out for a corner and it lead to the Wanderers equaliser.

The corner routine was a very deep ball over the top of the pack from Clisby, Milanovic walked backward to head it down and toward goal where Pierias was in the right spot to score his 3rd of the A-League season with a cheeky backheel to take advantage of the Roar failing to put men on both posts. Ruben Zadkovich reacted by bringing on Roar talisman Nikola Mileusnic for Taras Gomulka.

The 76th minute came and it was yet another failure to defend a set piece that put the Roar in front. A deep ball to the back post was flicked on in the middle, with Hore ghosting away from Ninkovic after the Wanderers midfielder misjudged the flight of the ball, and couldn't react fast enough when the flick on sent it over his head. Hore chested it down and fired past Ninkovic, finding a corridor to the back stick and slamming it into the side netting to make it 2-1.

The last roll of the dice from Marko Rudan was sending on Marcus Antonson for Milanovic & Tate Russell for Aidan Simmons with 10 to play. Marcus Antonsson headed the ball toward goal where it was intercepted by Tom Aldred's hand. Everyone in the stadium and watching on home could tell it was a handball live but as usual the blind A-League ref needed VAR to intervene and a bunch of replays to award it.

Antonsson won the penalty and stepped up to the spot. It was a godawful penalty, one of the worst ever taken by a Wanderer, a painfully slow and low kick straight down the middle where even with Freke diving he was still able to get his leg to the ball and block it away. Tate Russell almost got them level in the 4th minute of stoppage time as he rose at the back post to meet a cross, only to smash it into the turf and from there over the bar. The 7 minutes of stoppage time came and went in the blink of an eye, the Roar keeping their finals hope alive and putting the Wanderers facing up to a trio of matches against teams in the top half and Melbourne City breathing down their neck.

The Wanderers next game is against Sydney FC on Saturday the 13th of April, at the Sydney Football Stadium with kick-off at 7:45pm.