Skipper Craig Moore was red-carded midway through the second half after a second yellow card following a studs up challenge on United striker Nathan Burns.

Moore had received a yellow card just minutes earlier after a challenge on the same player.

Roar striker Ante Milicic said after the match Queensland showed “good character” to come back. “And we reorganised well after the send off of Craig Moore.”

A 76th minute header from defender Sasa Ogenovski got the home side back in the game after Nathan Burns's stunning strike opened the scoring in the first half.

Matt McKay cancelled out Burns' fantastic first half strike with a deflected shot that went in off Adelaide defender Michael Valkanis.

United striker Bruce Djite put the Reds back in front in the second half with a brilliant stooping header after Cassio's pinpoint cross before Ogenovski slipped his marker from a corner to head home from right in front.

Roar's Michael Valkanis said after the game he had “mixed feelings” about the result.

Adelaide coach Aurelio Vidmar lauded the efforts of his two young strikers. "It goes to show the level of professionalism those two boys have," Vidmar said about Burns and Djite.

"They played last Saturday and they also played Wednesday in 40-degree heat, and after hardly any sleep yesterday backing up today in these conditions, I thought it was an exceptional effort."

Minutes before Roar's second equaliser, United defender Ange Costanzo was subbed off in what may prove to be a talking point after this game. However, most of the talk will be about Craig Moore's first club game on Australian soil and his red card.

Despite the rain that deluged Brisbane, an encouraging 16,828 turned up to Suncorp.


FourFourTwo says...
An entertaining way to kick off the new season in Queensland. However, the Suncorp hoodoo still hangs over Roar after this draw. That said, a gutsy final 20 minutes will have given coach Farina some encouragement. For the Reds, a stylish performance was iced by two of our best young strikers, who gave their more experienced markers a torrid time. Craig Moore, welcome back to Australia.

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