All good things must come to and end and Brisbane Roar coach Ange Postecoglou believes not even Lionel Messi could have saved the A-League club's 36-game unbeaten run from extinction on Sunday.
Sydney FC's 2-0 win over the Roar at Kogarah Jubilee Oval officially drew the curtain on Brisbane's amazing run, a record in top-level Australian sport.
Postecoglou could have pointed to the fact his star playmaker Thomas Broich missed the match with a heel injury, or suggested his team could have felt a sense of anti-climax after clinching the record with a 4-0 win over Perth last weekend.
But the coach was not in the mood for excuses, saying his men had been simply outplayed by the enthusiastic Sky Blues.
"They're the beautiful excuses we can all pull out but football is not that simple," Postecoglou said.
"Sometimes you just meet a better opponent.
"It doesn't matter if we had Thomas out there or Lionel Messi out there, it doesn't matter.
"We tried hard enough, the effort was there, we tried to play our football in difficult conditions but it just wasn't to be."
Postecoglou insisted his players had not relaxed after their record-breaking feats, nor did he buy into suggestions the record had proved a distraction.
"We never saw it as a distraction or any added pressure, it was just something that was happening because we were doing well," he said.
"Sometimes when you get on a run like ours I think people expect you to win all the time.
"But that's not how sport works. That's our second loss in I think 42 games, that's a fair run we've had and we've just got to keep going."
Championship-winning Sydney coach Vitezslav Lavicka rated the win among his proudest moments at the club but urged his players to build on the result.
"I am proud to be a part of this team, part of this club, because tonight was something special for us," Lavicka said of his men, who reclaimed third spot.
"I think it was our best team performance of the season.
"I would like to see the team keep that performance, that level going in upcoming games."
The Roar remain atop the competition table but now sit only three points ahead of the improving Central Coast Mariners, who claimed their fifth win in six games with a 4-0 demolition of Adelaide on Saturday night.
That performance prompted Newcastle Jets coach Gary van Egmond to declare Central Coast the hottest team of the competition ahead of next weekend's F3 derby.
"What they did to Adelaide, I thought they were extremely good," van Egmond said.
The Jets claimed their first win in four games as they came from behind to beat a star-studded Melbourne Victory 3-1 in front of more than 17,000 fans on Saturday.
The Victory and their star recruit Harry Kewell put in a decent performance but the result will likely put some heat back on under-fire coach Mehmet Durakovic.
"This game's all about winning and we need to win games," Durakovic said.
Melbourne Heart and Perth Glory returned to winning ways with home wins over Wellington and Gold Coast respectively.
AAP
Tags: sport, soccer, a-league, sydney-2000, nsw, brisbane-4000, qld, australia First posted December 05, 2011 09:07:48
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