Henrique was the man the Roar needed in a crisis once more as he yet again turned the game as Brisbane defeated the Newcastle Jets 2-1 at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday.
The little Brazilian was involved in all the major talking points of the match as he scored the Roar’s equaliser from the spot after he was fouled by Jets captain Nigel Boogaard who was sent off for a record tenth occasion.
Minutes later he was again involved in the winner that was struck home by Thomas Broich with a delightful feint that allowed the German to score his first goal of the season and keep alive the Roar’s Premiers Plate chances.
Newcastle only had themselves to blame as aside from the first 15 minutes of the match they created just as much, if not more than the Roar but they could not take their chances.
READ MORE: How Twitter reacted to Brisbane’s 2-1 win over Newcastle
Newcastle youngster Ryan Kitto was the man who was most guilty as he should have buried a header to add to the lead given to his side by Leonardo’s penalty. He rose above his marker and had the whole goal to aim at, but could only direct a tame header directly into the arms of Jamie Young.
Roar struggle defensively in wide areas
There can be absolutely no doubting the quality the Roar possess going forward. They found themselves in behind the Jets on a number of occasions and probably should have taken the lead early in the first half. Brisbane’s problems are at the back, especially the massive amounts of space they leave in behind their fullbacks. All of Newcastle’s chances came from wide areas as John Aloisi allows both Corey Brown and Jack Hingert to overlap at will, which in turn allows for the opposition to exploit massive amounts of space in behind. Brisbane largely got away with it today as the Jets lacked the high end speed and quality to fully exploit this space, but with the finals approaching the Roar will have to tighten up this area of their game. Wingers the ilk of Romeo Castelen and Harry Novillo will be able to exploit these spaces and it may just cost the Roar yet another championship.
Boogaard at the centre of controversy yet again
It seems the skipper of the Newcastle Jets Nigel Boogaard just cannot help himself when it comes to receiving red cards. Matt McKay slipped in a beautiful through ball into the path of substitute Henrique who crept in behind the slightly out of position Jets captain. He was through on goal and became involved in a tussle with the Jets centre half and referee Strebre Delovski adjudged the Newcastle man to have impeded the Brazilian and pointed to the spot. Whether or not one feels that the decision was harsh on the Jets defender is unimportant, he simply just has to improve his discipline. This was the 10th time in his A-League career that he has been sent off and is something he simply has to eradicate from his game if the Jets are to do anything next season. This league is too tight and close for any side to afford to go down to 10 men and this was the third time in as many weeks when the Jets went down a man. Newcastle has improved from the disaster that was last season but they may be facing a seventh consecutive season without finals next year if they can’t improve their discipline.
Henrique makes the difference off the bench yet again for Brisbane
It is something that seems to happen every week for the men from the north of the Tweed. The ‘Slippery Fish’ as he is known, came off the bench to be the man to make the difference for the Roar as he was involved in both goals in yet another virtuoso display off the bench. He was the man that exposed Boogaard and stepped up to bury the penalty himself. It was his influence on Broich’s second goal that really showed the ability he has. As the cross came in he would have been well within his rights to take possession of the ball himself and attempt to add to his earlier goal. Instead he executed a clever dummy, allowing the ball to run for Broich who made no mistake as he drove yet another nail into the coffin of the Jets season. A lot of people talk of Wanderers’ Brendon Santalab as being the league’s finest exponent of affecting games coming off the bench, but I would argue that Henrique’s longevity and consistency over numerous seasons makes him the man you call on when something needs to be done.
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