A 10-man Melbourne Heart FC has suffered a 4-0 defeat at the hands of the Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.
A 10-man Melbourne Heart FC has suffered a 4-0 defeat at the hands of the Brisbane Roar at Suncorp Stadium on Saturday night.
Strikes from Kosta Barbarouses, Erik Paartalu, Reinaldo and Mitch Nichols secured Roar the three points, as the Queensland side firmly cast aside its striking shackles at home.
Head Coach John van ‘t Schip acknowledged his side was outplayed by Brisbane, who have climbed to second on the Hyundai A-League table.
“The positive is that we don’t have any injuries but for the rest I couldn’t see any positive things there. We got outplayed. We had a good start, but it didn’t last long and after that they started to play,” he said.
“They came behind our defence and in behind our midfield with a lot of mobility and we didn’t have any answers to it. When we had the ball we lost it too quickly by simple ball-possession which we’re normally better in. It helps a team like Roar come into the game and that’s what happened.”
Heart made a strong opening to the contest, seeking to maintain the vein of form which saw the side produce an impressive victory over the Wellington Phoenix last week.
Playing a deep lying midfield role, Josip Skoko dictated terms in the middle of the park, moving the ball around as Heart appeared intent on grabbing an early goal.
And it was a ball from the former Socceroo which almost led to the opener, as Skoko played a cross for John Aloisi, whose volley flew high of the Roar goal.
But the chance spurred Brisbane into action, as its free-flowing possession game came to the fore, and it wasn-t long before the side opened the scoring through a deflected Kosta Barbarouses effort in the 23rd minute.
With Heart on the back foot, Roar sought to press home its advantage, forcing Clint Bolton to produce a succession of stellar saves to keep his side in the contest.
However, his efforts proved in vain, as Brisbane doubled its advantage in the 37th minute when Erik Paartalu deflected Matthew Smith-s volley into the back of the net.
Roar made it 3-0 just after the break, when Reinaldo was felled under a challenge from Dean Heffernan before converting from the spot.
Brisbane-s stellar midfield overwhelmed the away side, moving the ball across the park with pace and precision to unlock Heart-s makeshift central defence, which was further weakened by an injury to Simon Colosimo.
Heart-s woes only deepened just before the hour mark when Heffernan was given his marching orders after receiving a second yellow card before Roar placed an exclamation mark on proceedings with a wonderfully worked fourth goal from Mitch Nichols.
