After 73 minutes of the match between top six hopefuls Brisbane Roar and A-League leaders Wellington Phoenix, wet weather intervened in controversial circumstances. Leading 2-1 at the time, thanks to goals from Michael McGlinchey and Nathan Burns, Wellington were handed all three points as the match at Suncorp was abandoned. But the second-half downpour in Brisbane not only left a sour taste in the mouths of those connected with the Roar, it also robbed the neutrals of an intriguing match of football.
Even though Wellington took the lead just before half-time, there was one key tactical question for them to solve – how to stop Brisbane’s left side? The Roar had been able to create an overload down the left for most of the match, in the main due to Dimitri Petratos’s movement but Wellington’s shape when defending also played into the hosts’ hands.
When Brisbane had possession in deep areas, they looked to play out from the back while Wellington looked to apply pressure and win the ball back in dangerous positions. When applying pressure, Roly Bonevacia would quickly move onto Luke Brattan to prevent him from receiving the ball from his centre-backs in space, Burns would push onto James Donachie and McGlinchey would watch Jerome Polenz. But on Wellington’s right, Brisbane’s left, the question of who takes who was a little more difficult to answer. Roy Krishna took up a starting position in between Luke DeVere and left-back Corey Brown, but when DeVere was in possession, Krishna would arc his run to close the ball. Vince Lia would then step forward to mark Matt McKay.
This pattern left Brown as the free man for Brisbane and Petratos took full advantage when his full-back pushed up, dropping in between the lines into central positions to receive possession in space. Outnumbered at right-back, Wellington’s Michael Boxall was unsure whether to follow Petratos or to pick up Brown as he advanced.
This overload was also accentuated by the positions that Brisbane’s two deepest midfielders – McKay and Brattan – would take up. Both players drifted into deep and wide positions. This allowed their full-backs to push further up the pitch and it also left a space between Lia and Bonevacia for Petratos to drop into and receive possession of the ball.
And that was exactly what Petratos did in the buildup to Brisbane’s fifth-minute goal. Dropping back when Brisbane were playing out from the back, Petratos was able to receive possession when DeVere split Bonevacia and Lia. Boxall, aware of his overload, had let Petratos move into a central position and instead stepped forward to pick up Brown, but when Petratos turned and faced forward, Brown burst into the space in behind Boxall before crossing to Andrija Kaluderovic to finish off the move.
This tactical pattern posed issues for Wellington early on and Petratos was frequently able to receive possession in space and had a number of good shooting opportunities in the first half.
As the match progressed, Lia and Boxall began to try to solve the issue, communicating amongst themselves about when Boxall should step out and follow Petratos and when Lia should drop off and pick him up.
However, the overload still remained, which is why the rain robbed us of such an interesting final 20 minutes. Wellington coach Ernie Merrick had identified this and made a change just minutes before the abandonment – bringing on Alex Rodriguez for Roy Krishna and moving to a 4-4-1-1.
This meant Wellington could match up against Brisbane’s left side, with Rodriguez picking up Brown, Lia continuing on McKay and Boxall having a clearer role against Petratos.
Unfortunately, the rain intervened and we were unable to see if this change stemmed the flow of Brisbane’s attacks down the left, or to see how the Roar themselves reacted to this change. Instead, for all of Brisbane’s positive buildup play, they were left with a loss to their names and Wellington, who were by no means second best in a very even and entertaining opening half, extended their lead at the top to four points.
