On the Ball: A-League Round 6
Berisha reminds everyone of his worth, Adelaide United's struggles continue and Henrique's perfect return for the Roar are all in this week's editions of On the Ball.
Berisha reminds people he is the main man
A week after Bruno Fornarolli started being mentioned as the best striker in the A-League, Besart Berisha has quickly stolen the mantelpiece back off him.
Berisha was at his lethal best against Sydney FC in the Big Blue, scoring a fantastic double with sublime strikes leaving goalkeeper Vedran Janjetovic in all sorts.
The Albanian forward is definitely the player every A-League club would love to have in their side as he strikes fear in all opponents with his energetic and accurate displays.
Couple that with having Kosta Barbarouses and Fahid Ben Khalfallah on either side of him and the Melbourne Victory has the strike force worthy of keeping a hold of the A-League title.
United struggle to continue
Adelaide United is in a severe rut and it doesn’t look like it will end any time soon.
Their performance in their 4-2 loss against Wellington was a bit better, but the reality is that the majority of their play was scrappy.
Their defence seems to not being communicating and if they are to stop conceding this must improve dramatically.
In saying that, I don’t think Adelaide should be considering sacking coach Guillermo Amor.
When things generally start going wrong, a domino effect occurs which seems like what is happening here.
Instead, Adelaide should be looking towards future planning for their side.
Henrique’s perfect return
What a way to return to action for Henrique?
The recently naturalised Aussie made his first appearance for Brisbane in eight months after a knee reconstruction, scoring the winning goal against Perth on Sunday afternoon.
Henrique showed how much the goal meant to him when he broke down in tears while celebrating with his teammates.
The exciting thing for coach John Aloisi is that he now has a plethora of options in attack including youngsters Jamie Maclaren and Brandon Borello as they sit on top of the ladder.
He will need all three of them firing this weekend when they host a hungry Melbourne City at Suncorp Stadium.
Shock of the week
Sydney FC letting the lead slip twice at home before eventually going down 4-2 to the Melbourne Victory is bitterly disappointing for their fans.
The Big Blue did live up to its expectations of being an entertaining match but fans would have left Allianz Stadium furious to be up twice and still walk away with a loss.
Sydney’s defensive line had only conceded two goals in their first five fixtures before this weekend, so it might be back to the drawing board for this weekend’s visit to Perth.
Team of the week
Goalkeeper – Jamie Young (BR)
Right Back – Andrew Durante (WP)
Centre Back – Nikolai Topor-Stanley (WSW)
Centre Back – Matthieu Delpierre
Left Back – Alex Gersbach (SFC)
Midfielder – Mitch Nichols (WSW)
Midfielder – Andreu (WSW)
Midfielder – Roly Bonevacia (WP)
Forward – Milos Trifunovic (NJ)
Forward – Besart Berisha (MV)
Forward – Roy Krishna (WP)
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