Brisbane’s best play came through FBK and Maccarone but for the Roar it was an uphill battle from before kick-off. One of their best players from the last round, Corey Gameiro didn’t make it through the warm-up.

Sydney are a very good team with no real weak links. They do however, have strongest links and they are their three foreign attackers. Can anyone stop them?

Brisbane Roar

Jamie Young 6.5 – According to a Fox Sports twitter poll, Young is the best goalkeeper in the competition. With this Brisbane defense he does get to make a lot of saves.

Dane Ingham 5 – Did a few important things defensively but also let himself be sucked inside too often and this let Zullo run riot down the left.  

Luke Devere 3.5 – Struggled to deal with the sheer quality of Sydney’s attack. As captain in the centre of defensive, these failings either personally fall on him, or are a result of his failure to organise things properly. He was exposed as being too slow to chase down both Adrian and Bobo which is a worry.

Daniel Bowles 3.5 – Needed to back up Devere more often. Up against the best attack in the league you need to work together as a unit as well as having a good game personally and Bowles just didn’t do either of those things tonight.

Corey Brown 5.5 – He was the best of Brisbane’s poor defense. Without him the score might have been higher.

Thomas Kristensen 5 – Simply not a good enough performance from a VISA player. Couldn’t contain Sydney’s midfield and didn’t contribute in enough meaningful ways to his team’s attacking play. An Australian player could have done those things.

Jacob Pepper 5.5 – Was guilty of giving Adrian Mierzejewski too much space for Sydney’s second. His effort rate throughout the game wasn’t bad but he might not have used that effort more wisely.

Petros Skapetis 5 – He was the weakest link in the Brisbane attack tonight. Couldn’t find the angle for some important openings and didn’t fashion anything on his own.

Fahid Ben Khalfallah 7.5 – Looked very dangerous early on. Brisbane’s biggest attacking threat in the game, but that said, he was a little quieter in the second half.

Daniel Leck 6 – For a late inclusion into the starting eleven, he looked good. Ran hard and did some nice dribbles. He even had a couple of chances against the very good Sydney defence. On that performance he deserves more game time.

Massimo Maccarone 7 – Is this man really 38? He’s been playing like a man at least six years younger all season. Italians. The hand gestures while they talk must be a good cardio work out. 

Subs

Eric Bautheac 6 – Showed his quality when he was introduced.

Mitchell Oxborrow 4 – Didn’t have long to influence the game and only popped up with one decent involvement in the play.

Rahmat Akbari 4 – Also didn’t have enough time to influence play.

Sydney FC

Andrew Redmayne 7 – Made a very good save to deny Maccarone in the first half. Had one of his busiest nights tonight and handled it well. Cleansheet and had great command of his box.  

Luke Wilkshire 6 – A solid performance. He was a cog in Sydney’s well-oiled machine tonight. His excellent switches are an important part of Sydney’s game plan.

Jordy Buijs 6.5 – Worked hard for his team tonight and didn’t try to stand out. Another cog. You can’t underestimate the importance of a good cog.

Alex Wilkinson 7.5 – The highlight of his performance was when he made an incredible stretch to stop Maccarone from having a tap in. Marshalled his defence well to deal with the dangerous FBK and Maccarone.   

Michael Zullo 7 – Found a lot of space to attack down the left. His crossing tonight was some of the finest you’ll see from an Australian, which isn’t high praise, we are awful at crossing.

Branden O’Neill 6.5 – Quiet game this week but still did his job for the team. He played some intelligent and well executed first time passes from midfield.

Josh Brilliante 8 – In modern football it seems like one of the jobs of a defensive midfielder is to cynically foul attackers to stop counterattacks. Brillante won a yellow card for his efforts to fulfil this role. He also showed great technique to test Young with a volley in the second half. It was his great work that created Sydney’s third. He also clocked the fourth official in the face. Why did he aim for her? There are plenty of A League officials who deserve it and she doesn't, at least not yet.

Alex Brosque 7.5 – VAR has a lot to answer for and one of them is chalking off a delightful assist from Alex Brosque. We want more goals not less. A good performance from the token Aussie in the Sydney attack.

Milos Ninkovic 7 – His cross for Bobo’s opener was inch perfect. Other than that it was a quiet night from Sydney’s Serb. By his standards anyway, which means he’s still a seven. 

Adrian Mierzejewski 8.5 – For his goal he probably couldn’t believe how much time Brisbane gave him at the top of the box. He was able to get himself settled, take out the measuring tape and line his shot up perfectly with the bottom corner. Tonight he showed the league that as well as incredible vision, skill and composure he also has pace. Frightening.

Bobo 6.5 – Scored a goal but he also missed another chance he would have scored a few weeks ago. After two consecutive hat tricks he’s now had two games where he didn’t look likely.

Subs

Matt Simon 5.5 – Apparently he got his first yellow card for the season tonight, that must be some mistake. He was out of position as a number nine for a few of Sydney’s late attacks which was silly. He must have wanted to be a nuisance to Brisbane players more than he wanted to score.

David Carney 6 – Was Johnny on the spot to finish Sydney’s third goal. Other than that he didn’t really get much of a chance to impact the game.

Paulo Retre 9.5 – Came on with ten seconds to go. Amazing work. Performed his role brilliantly.