Head Coach Tony Popovic spoke to the media post-match after Victory’s 0-0 draw against Brisbane.
On the performance…
“Of course, we wanted to win.”
“I think in the end it’s a good point for us. I thought the first half was way too open. We could have scored, could have conceded, the game was very stretched and we didn’t retain the ball well and we couldn’t build a lot of pressure.”
“We got a clean sheet so we have to take those positives. We could have locked in a home final tonight. It’s still likely but not secure yet. But there’s disappointment amongst the boys at that missed opportunity.”
“We didn’t win but when you put the game in perspective and what we dealt with, you know for 35-40 minutes when you count seven minutes of injury time, I thought it was a very good display, a lot of character shown with 10 men and that should serve us well in the finals.”
On Brisbane Roar…
“They came here, they’ve got nothing to play for and that’s always a dangerous opponent.”
“I thought they were very dangerous on set plays, we gave a lot of corners away in the first half and they were very dangerous. We should have defended those better in the second half, but yeah, they came, played freely and it’s a missed opportunity to win another game going into the finals.”
“But you know, we’ve kept a clean sheet and it’s been nine games since we’ve done that. And we did it with 10 men so it showed a lot of character. We’re going to learn from this and take it into the Wanderers game which is an important game but also, Wanderers need to win to try and get into finals, so you know it’s a good game for us to to play before the finals.”
On turning draws into wins…
“I think it’s been a concern all year that we want to win more games than we draw. But we’ve also only lost four games.”
“Wellington’s lost four games, so we’ve lost the least amount of games. We’ve been consistent enough but you know, not good enough to get in the top two due to that. But they’re good enough to be in the top three or four all year. So we’ve been consistent, I don’t think we’ve gone under the top four for the entire season. So we’ve been up there, but we haven’t been able to make that next step. There are aspects of this game today that give me a lot of confidence in a one-off match.”
