I feel a great sense of vindication this week. My positivity which blooms eternally every off season has come to fruition with a very bright opening to the season for Roar. I was the one writing blogs about the direction Ange and the board were taking us and now that has blossomed into some of the best passing and moving the league has ever seen. It's truly an exciting brand of football that can delight the punter and hopefully bring people through the gates.
I know it was only our second game of the year, I know we have only one win and one draw from those games, but I don't care. Even if we miss the finals (I hope we don't) I will be content with the effort the Brisbane buys are putting on the park, and the manner in which they are doing it. This style of football lead Miron Bleiberg to exclaim that we were playing like Spain (I know its Bleiberg quote, and you can't take anything he says too seriously, but it's nice nonetheless). It's a game built around constant passing and movement, creating space, tiring defences and generally being entertaining.
Its quite a change in this league from the teams who offer up the same brand off football each week. You know what I mean. The teams that play one man up front, everyone else behind the ball, sitting back, waiting for the other team to make the play, then pounce on a mistake and break down the field for a scoring opportunity.
Don't get me wrong, it's a valid tactic, and its widely used, but since this is a blog and I'm voicing my opinion, I think its cowardly and overtly anti-football. Coaches are terrified of losing there jobs, and are overly cautious to the point of boring the fans to tears.
People who sit in the stands and fork out their hard earned money to buy tickets, to become members only to be bored whilst the back four pass the ball back and forth for 15 minutes. God forbid two teams come face to face in this league that both decide to employ the counter attacking tactic and sit everyone behind the ball.
These games occur quite often unfortunately and they are quite painful to watch. So my message is grow a pair, and let the boys play.
I'm not saying that Roar is the only team playing an entertaining brand of football in the league at the moment. North Queensland Fury have caught the eye during the early stages of version 6. That's because Franz Straka has built a strong camaraderie up there at Dairy Farmers and quite a few of the Fury boys have mentioned that Mister Straka has given them the freedom of trying things without recrimination, and the result is open exciting football. They also have some ex-Roar players up there too, so that could be helping. By the way, thanks for Steffanuto and Matt Smith.
For a while there, the league was in danger of being overrun with defensive midfielder as teams not only had one defensive midfielder sitting in front of the centre backs, but they often employ two. Come on, I know everyone likes to win, but this league is still so young.
You are not going to win anyone over with that home brand type of football. Let the boys play. Not that I'm against defensive midfielders. One of the finds of this early season is Eric Paartalu. When I saw his name as a new signing and researched his background, I have to say I wasn't too impressed.
I first saw him at the Roar family fun day, and he cut an imposing figure, but I still didn't know if he could play. After watching him now, I am really impressed. Apparently the boys in the squad have taken to calling him Ivan Drago, the infamous Russian boxer that pummelled Rocky and the movies of the same name. He's tall, he's blond, and he's big, I'd say the comparison is apt.
All I can say is that I'm happy he's in orange,
