Brisbane Roar head to India to ‘lay foundations’ for new A-League season

A pre-season “like no other” has led to an A-League club accepting an offer to play in a tournament in India.

The chance to prepare for the new A-League campaign by playing in a tournament involving teams from India and Argentina was too good for Brisbane Roar to refuse in a pre-season affected by financial constraints facing all clubs.

The Roar left on Wednesday for India, where they will compete in the Bhausaheb Bandodkar Memorial Trophy tournament with seven other teams, including Indian Super League sides FC Goa, Odisha, and Chennaiyin and Argentine top-flight outfit Defensa y Justicia.

Having failed to reach the Australia Cup round of 32 after losing a playoff to Perth Glory, the Roar was desperate for some high quality pre-season games.

In previous years, Brisbane would often play trials against other A-League teams who would travel to Queensland for training camps in a warmer climate.

However, with A-League clubs affected by the Australian Professional Leagues financial woes, which resulted in a massive reduction in distribution money, the pre-season camps are a luxury of the past.

As we head over to India tomorrow, here's who the boys would least like to sit next to on the plane ✈️ pic.twitter.com/nsN9JwGvCA

— Brisbane Roar FC (@brisbaneroar) August 20, 2024

“It’s a pre-season like no other because usually you’ve got the likes of Western Sydney Wanderers, Western United and other clubs that want to get up to Queensland to train and play friendlies in the better weather, but this pre-season there’s no one coming up,” Roar chief operations officer Zac Anderson said.

“For us, it’s really important to get away, get these match minutes … and hopefully build the foundations for a really successful season.”

With the assistance of partners and sponsors, the Roar was able to accept an offer to play in the tournament in the Indian state of Goa, with the opportunity to play up to five matches not something Brisbane coach Ruben Zadkovich intends to waste.

“When you make additions in both the staff department and the player roster, it’s nice for them to spend time together,” Zadkovich said.

“You can’t force relationships, they have to happen naturally, and a trip away like this gives those connections a chance to really grow off the pitch but also on the pitch in what we’re tying to do.

“It gives us some competitive fixtures and matches in some trying conditions and trying circumstances, which is great.

“It’s a trip where we’ll look to try to build a lot of resilience and grow together. Results aren’t probably the biggest focus of the trip, but we want to lay down some markers on our standards and our expectations.

“We don’t hide behind that we want to win every game we play, but we also want to do it playing the right way and trying to build a team model that’s conducive to producing players.”

The Roar’s first game of the tournament is against FC Goa on Saturday at Fatorda Stadium.