Queensland Roar – after 3 rounds

So far, the A-League ledger for Queensland Roar reads: Played 3: Draw 2, Lost 1. The results: 2-2 at home v Adelaide Utd, 1-1 away v Newcastle Jets, 0-1 at home v Central Coast Mariners. That is, after 3 games in the A-League, Qld Roar are winless. And I’m not happy about that.

I went to both the home games (v Adelaide Utd & Central Coast Mariners) with some friends. From what I saw, it's the same old story again for Qld Roar. Silly mistakes & lack of concentration leading to goals conceded. Wastefulness in front of goal. Failing to test the opposition goalkeeper due to poor and/or weak shooting.

To be fair, Qld did have some unlucky moments in the home games, with the opposition keeper making some good saves to keep Qld out (especially in the Mariners match). OK, fine. But the bottom line remains, Qld have not won a match so far this season, & poor finishing is a bigger contributing factor than simply bad luck.

I wonder what is it that the Qld coach Frank Farina does with the players during training. Play card games? Conduct beer drinking contests? Jokes aside, judging from Qld's displays so far, one would think that shooting practice does not feature prominently in the Roar's training program. Qld have not changed much from past seasons - well, maybe there's some slight improvement, but that won't be enough to make the top 4 play-offs.

And oh, interestingly, former Roar coach Miron Bleiberg (Farina's predecessor) has recently said that perhaps fans should tone down criticism of the team & the coach. Bleiberg pointed out that Qld Roar are not the only team struggling to score in the A-League this season, citing increased competitiveness & general evenness of the competition as reasons that goals have not flowed abundantly so far this season.

OK, perhaps Bleiberg has a point. But still, we as fans have every right to be critical when Qld don't score as many as they should. We pay good money to enter the Suncorp Stadium to see our team play hard, entertain & score some goals. We don't expect Qld Roar to sweep aside the rest of the A-League, & we don't expect them to win every game. We expect Qld Roar to try their best - ok, perhaps they do. We expect more goals than we're getting, & one can't help but feel that Qld Roar's forwards really should buck up. We're not asking them all to score loads, but just score a fair share. Is it too much to ask & expect the forwards to do their job? I think not.

And the fact that the other A-League teams may have also struggled to score (as alluded by Mr Bleiberg) is not something I want to dwell much on. If they struggle in that department, let it be. I'm not all that concerned with how the other A-League teams fare. I am concerned with how Qld Roar fares. Right now, not too well. Yes, true, it's only 3 games played, so there's plenty more to come. But, Qld Roar must do something to improve. And quickly, too - or else, they will suffer the same fate as the previous seasons & miss out on the A-League playoffs.

We shall see how Qld goes in their next few games, & will perhaps talk more about it in a future blog post. Qld play Perth away this Sunday evening (16/9/07). Then next Saturday, the big one - home game v Sydney FC. Given the sport rivalry between Qld & New South Wales, the game will be huge. I already bought the tickets to that game, & I cannot wait! Come on you Roar!!