Every team has a player that is widely ridiculed by opposing fans and even his own team's supporters routinely. For Roar it has often been Reinaldo (seeing that David Dodd and Ben Griffin have left the club after being mercilessly targeted by "critics").
Reinaldo came to the club on the back of a DVD scouting trip for a four game loan in season one of the A-League as Queensland Roar tried to find goals and entry into the finals. After that campaign ended and Alex Brosque absconded to Sydney, Queensland Roar signed Reinaldo to a two year contract after negotiations with Corinthians Alagoano. During subsequent performances Reinaldo struggled with fitness, confidence and a consistent finishing touch. In version three of the league however Reinaldo was the top scorer for a Roar squad that came within a whisker of reaching the grand final.
Following that performance Reinaldo left Brisbane for a stint in the K-League for Busan I'Park, and I do mean a stint as he only lasted seven games before having his contract terminated via mutual agreement because he wasn't settling in Korea. Reinaldo then returned to Brisbane signing a three year contract.
During his time in Orange I have heard every criticism of Reinaldo from, he's too slow, he's lazy, he can't shoot etc etc etc. To some extent his finishing can, and needs to be improved, and sometimes his decision making leaves a lot to be desired, but I would have Reinaldo in my squad every day of the week.
Top of my list of the reasons I love Reinaldo is his passion. When he scores he kisses the jersey he loves the city and he loves the club and that can never be diminished.
Reinaldo is a genuinely nice guy. My wife and I have had several chats with him and he is a top bloke.
Reinaldo transferred to the K-League and netted us a tidy transfer fee in the vicinity of $300 000, he then terminated the contract, and came back to Roar......for free. Top stuff.
Despite his maligned goal scoring efforts the figures are that he has played 82 games for Roar and scored 21 goals which is one every four games. I know that suffers in comparison to another former Roar striker who scored one every two games, but still, it's not that bad. It's the same strike rate as Matt Simon, Mark Bridge and Travis Dodd (I don't know if that helps or hinders my argument).
Reinaldo provided the greatest goal on the greatest night of football for a Roar fan. I'm talking about the night that the heavens opened just before kick off in the second leg of the final series against Sydney FC. During the encounter Craig Moore cleared the ball out of the defensive area for Roar and Reinaldo captured it with his chest at the half way line and strode down the sideline towards Clint Bolton. Mark Milligan was beaten all ends up and Reinaldo fired the ball into the top corner of the net from an acute angle sending the crowd of 36,000 into raptures and creating a - wait for it - legendary goal for the ages that Brisbane supporters will recount forever. That goal is reason enough to keep Reinaldo in orange till he dies.
Reinaldo is now Aussie as.
Reinaldo also has a great combination of size, strength and speed that everyone covets. He can hold the ball up, and involve the midfield. After his goal against the Jets on the weekend he has also scored three goals on the trot, yet I had one goose sitting behind me at the Jets game yelling abusive vitriol at Reinaldo all game. It wasn't constructive it was just hateful.
It's easy to pinpoint one person as the fall guy for Roar's lack of finishing. Fact of the matter is all the players are guilty of lacking the killer instinct. Even the fantastically skilled Broich has only scored one goal, and sometimes seems reluctant to pull the trigger, Kosta needs to finish better; Nichols has had a plethora of opportunities.
While people want to hang their hats on this negative aspect of Roar's play so far this season, they have somehow managed to overlook how the chances are created. Through exciting passing and interplay. Brisbane created 26 odd shots against the Jets, who only had four, and the goal they did score came off Matt Smith. That statistic is not an anomaly, as Roar's performances have looked like that for the majority of this season.
So the chances will still come for Reinaldo and co, and they will start to rack up more goals, even if it is via the sheer amount of opportunities.
This wont stop the Reinaldo detractors, cause lets face it "haters gunna hate", but as a striker or goal scorer I know which team I would want to play for this season.
