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Game Of Four Quarters In Back & Forth Draw

The Brisbane Roar and Western Sydney Wanderers played out a topsy-turvy two-all draw in Brisbane tonight, with the point each doing little to help their fragile finals hopes. With just this and 5 more games left in the A-League regular season, the very faint hopes that the Wanderers could make a late finals dash hinged on needing an away win against fellow bottom half team Brisbane Roar. After a disappointing loss from in front failure against ladder leaders Newcastle Jets, interim coach Gary van Egmond made changes, dropping Anthony Pantazopolous and Phillip Cancar to the bench while Dylan Scicluna and Hiroshi Ibusuki were absent from the squad entirely. Joshua Brillante and Jarrod Carluccio were promoted to the starting 11, with Awan Lual and Nathan Barrie both returning to the substitutes bench after a long absence. Brisbane had a weekend off due to Melbourne City's Asian Champions League scheduling, making three changes as well with Henry Hore, Michael Ruhs and Georgios Vrakas starting. There was a chance each to open the match, the first from Ryan Fraser who nutmgged a defender but couldn't reach the ball before it went over the by-line. Brisbane attacked from a goal kick with Sam Klein releasing Michael Ruhs, he couldn't outpace the defence but cut the ball back onto his right foot and fired a low strike that Lawrence Thomas was perhaps lucky to save with the feet as he dived early to his right. Brisbane opened the scoring on the back of a Fraser turnover in midfield. He lost the ball from behind, Jarrod Carluccio then shied away from a 50/50 and that allowed Roar to break down the right. It seemed like the Wanderers had done enough in defence but Joshua Brillante played a weak attempted clearance all of 6 yards away to the feet of Vrakas and his snap shot beat Thomas, 1-0 after 6 minute. Ruhs would have doubled the lead with a heavy, swerving strike that Thomas got just enough of a touch to turn the ball onto the crossbar and away. Dean Bouzanis needed treatment after the goal and despite playing the rest of the first half he departed after half-time with Macklin Freke coming on instead. Western Sydney began to build pressure once more with the benefit of the Roar's cynical fouling being disrupted with a yellow card each to Noah Maieroni and Youstin Salas. The Wanderers equalised in the 36th minute through Brandon Borrello finishing a simple header after a wave of side to side attack deep in the Roar half. The Wanderers had to build from the back with the Roar parking the bus, Fraser ran at the defence, Borrello went wide to Carluccio, his very deep cross found Fraser unmarked and his gentled left footed volley found Borrello standing front and centre on the 6 yard box and he couldn't miss even with a Roar defender standing on the line. Jacob Farrell also went into the book for a midfield foul he needed to make to prevent a counter after Brandon Borrello was scythed down from behind with no action from the officials. Roar thought they had killed off the 5 minutes of stoppage time with a series of fake injuries, but the Wanderers stayed switched on and took the lead with the last kick of the half with a simple long ball to Angus Thurgate followed by a thunderbolt from 24 yards out on his left foot, that started outside the far post then curled gloriously up and past the outstretched hand of Bouzanis. The half-time stats told the story, despite the disjointed nature of the attacking play on offer from the away side, the Red & Black were the only team wanting to play positively and despite a few a risks playing out, built from the back without being too passive, and took their chances. Roar parked the bus, made cynical fouls and could only manage 38% possession at home, and what little possession they had was mostly spent booting it directly up-field hoping for Ruhs to channel his inner Lionel Messi to beat the defence on his own. The Wanderers were still on top after the break, Carluccio having a point-blank header that he should have scored despite that likely needing him to collide head first with the back-post as a result, and then Kraev had a golden opportunity when the ball fell to him unmarked a few yards out but he was put off. Fraser followed with his own chance where he was played in but a desperate final touch from Salas deflected the shot over the bar. Brisbane thought they had levelled the score in the 73rd minute but Hugh Fenton, the linesman who looks like a 1800's wild west train robber denied them, with a brilliant offside decision as substitute Niall Thom was grabbing Jacob Farrell while standing offside, before he passed it on and then came back to score from short range with an assist for MacNicol. Unfortunately for the Wanderers, the VAR did what it always does when a call goes the Wanderers way, and it spent 5 minutes microscopically examining every angle to find a reason to justify overturning the on field call, and it eventually did, declaring that Farrell's boot was "level" with Thom's knee or shoulder. Jai Rose should have put the Wanderers ahead with 2 minutes left in regulation, an over-hit cross was clipped back into the near post area where Rose was free and an open near-post to park the ball into, he fluffed the volley and sent it well wide. He had to give away a yellow card of his own up the other end after losing the ball inside his own half. The Roar couldn't work the free kick into a shot. Rose almost won the game in the 94th minute, a long throw that bounced around the area then back inside where Rose jumped back to goal with the audacious overhead volley that cracked off the crossbar. It was the last opportunity of the match, and another example of the Wanderers getting their nose in front only to fall apart in the second half, dominated the game and instead of securing it with a two or three goal lead, the defence went missing and allowed the opposition back into the match. The one point for the Wanderers elevates them off the foot of the A-League ladder, pushing the Wellington Phoenix down into last place on goal difference pending their match against Perth on Saturday night. The Wanderers next match is against Adelaide United on Friday the 20th of March, in Adelaide with kick-off at 7:35pm Sydney time.