For How Much Longer?

By: Ahmed | September 19th, 2008

Your team is playing great football. They moving the ball around, getting shots in and creating chances, yet they are always managing to lose at home. One has to wonder how long can the Queensland faithful continue to endure such heartbreak. The Roar crowds have been a very good average each year, but unfortunately the team does not deliver the goods, and I wonder if the crowds will continue to flock back after countless let down.

The Qld Roar played Newcastle Jets last night in what can be described as a scrappy game. The Jets played counter-attacking football and were quite content to sit back and let Queensland do all the running. The Roar created chances and had shots from all over the park, but was fruitless in their attempts for a goal, much to the dismay of the Roar faithful. Newcastle scored a scrappy goal through Joel Griffiths with about 15 minutes to go. Roar keeper Liam Reddy failed to connect with the ball from a corner and the resulting bobble fell for Griffiths to tap in the winner for the Jets.

It was a case of Dejavu for the Roar who suffered a defeat at the hands of the Jets by the same score line at home last season. As a Roar supporter, ill never stop watching and supporting the Roar, but I wonder, in a country dominated by Rugby and AFL, will the fans we trying to win over continue to show their support for the Roar? I seriously hope so, especially as the football the Roar produce is quite enjoyable. This possibly might still be the reason everyone continues to venture to Suncorp Stadium.

The Roar are a bit like Arsenal, they play good possession attacking football, get into good positions, yet it seems they try to walk the ball in. Unlike Arsenal, the Roar lacks the quality to walk it in and need to start thinking about other ways of scoring. In my view, though it will sound biased, the Roar play the best football in the A-League. They control the play, move the ball around nicely, get into good positions and use there pace men effectively. The only problem missing is our lack of finishing prowess. No disrespect to the strikers, they have shown they capable of putting the ball in the back of the net, but get the shivers at Suncorp Stadium.

It could possibly be the fact that Suncorp Stadium was once a burial ground, and the ghosts of the past are creeping in at the last minute and put the Roar boys off their shots. Sounds ludicrous, but im lost for other answers really. The most worrying factor for me is how long can the fans continue to endure the poor home record. I hope the fans can stick with the team through thick and thin. It seems like only a matter of time before the goals start flying in at home. Frank Farina surely is working on improving our home record and we should on the up pretty soon, well at least I like to think that.

In the meantime I can only appeal to the fans to continue to support the team and get behind the boys. I make one other appeal to the team to start turning good performances into wins at home. If the results don’t flow, then I find it very hard for the fans to continue to show their support. It’s about time the Roar repaid the faithful and we can get back to winning ways.