I’m not ashamed to say it ‘Brisbane Roar can play in Europe’

I was watching Fox Sports Match Day Saturday a couple of weeks ago (it was my disco night off) after Brisbane Roar summarily dismantle Sydney FC when Željko Kalac’s response to an Adam Peacock question in an after match interview took my attention.

Adam asked Željko (who is Sydney FC’s goalkeeping coach) whether Roar’s beautiful brand football could be competitive in the Italian leagues.

It was a brave question but one that Kalac instantly dismissed as ridiculous and not worth responding to.

That was Spider’s opinion (and we all know that he is extremely forthright and uncompromised in expressing it) and, as we are always reminded, everyone is entitled to an opinion.

In the same week FFA technical director, Han Berger, a man who has worked at no less than eight clubs in Holland, coaching in 657 top division games and is also extremely familiar with the standards of the game throughout Europe, said that Brisbane Roar under Ange Postecoglou could survive and hold its own in the Dutch Eredivsie.

Last season Rini Coolen declared, after witnessing his Adelaide United team being comprehensively thumped 4-0 by Roar, that ‘Bris-lona’ under ‘Pepe’ Postecoglou play a European standard, not brand, but standard of football.

So who to believe?

Well it’s a moot point really for unless Bris-lona win the Asian Champions League and plays in the FIFA World Club Championship against the likes of Juventus, AC Milan or Inter in a competitive game, we are never going to know – and even then that is only a one off and not a week-in-week out league scenario.

But allow me to indulge in something the Diegos are particularly good at – speculation and hypothetical scenarios.

For over 30 years Australia has produced players who have played in all the major leagues in the world. The Socceroos have beaten and, most of the time, been competitive against some of the top national teams in the world.

Our A-League is a professional environment that is breeding professional top line athletes in a physical and high performance sense. We have a team in Brisbane Roar that is playing a Euro standard of football so why can’t we suggest for a moment that perhaps they could compete with some of the bread and butter teams in Euro leagues?

Let’s hope that it’s not ‘cultural cringe’ or the Euro ‘snobs’ pseudo-superior attitudes that stop us considering whether Roar is up to it or not. An inferiority complex that keeps our minds small and ambitions limited will not help grow the game in this country and achieve anything meaningful on the global football stage.

For what it’s worth I reckon Roar could but I’d love to hear your thoughts – join the conversation at twitter.com/fourdiegos or email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

As a last word Željko, you are a legend but Bris-lona under ‘Pepe’ Postecoglou is at a minimum Serie B class and I’m willing to put my Penne Putanesca on that amigo

Ole!

Carlos Alberto Diego