By Nick Creely
Melbourne City has kicked off its A-League Men premiership defence in fine style, defeating Brisbane Roar 2-1 at AAMI Park on Friday night.
It didn’t go all the way for the reigning champions out of Casey Fields, who had to scrap hard in the season opening clash, but two goals in a matter of moments just before the half-time break was the catalyst for the win.
Curtis Good got the ball into the back of the net with a strike from close range to get City on the board for the first time this season, before only moments later Connor Metcalfe showed some handy footwork to deliver a strike and send the champs to 2-0.
While the Roar battled hard in the second half, finding the goals with a Luke Ivanovic strike shooting past the goal-keeper, City held onto its lead to bank the opening round points.
Patrick Kisnorbo was able to field his all-Socceroo front three for the first time in Matthew Leckie, Jamie Maclaren and Andrew Nabboutm with the trio shining with their composure and experience.
Kisnorbo said that Roar made them earn the win and could have snatched a win after fading away in the second-half.
“I don’t feel fortunate, the second half wasn’t great at all, I’m not happy with the first half,” he said.
“We did some good things, but we’ve got to look over the game – we need to work at that and address that.
“Our pressure on the ball was slow, we became pretty slow with the ball, and our positioning was wrong.”
Despite being disappointed with elements of the game, Kisnorbo was pleased to walk away with the points.
“It’s great to get minutes into their legs, you could see they were fatiguing,” he said.
“It’s the first round, so there’s a build up to game one, so we were able to ground out a result.”
City will now face Adelaide on Saturday night at home.
