Victory in Melbourne 

Thought I would head off to the local on Saturday night to watch the Sydney vs Melbourne match particularly as I was rushing back from watching the Green Gully vs Melbourne Knights top of the table clash in the VPL (you can read my report here) and didn’t have time to go anywhere else. I don’t usually go there to watch Victory games and a Saturday night I doubt I will be returning. I shall not be naming names as I have done that on other forums.

First up, when enquiring to the possibility of putting the game on a big screen (they have five of them), the young lady behind the bar responded with a “not a hope in hell” because people wanted to watch the AFL match that was on that night along with the Olympics. I then kindly pointed out that the aforementioned game was being shown on four screens already and surely they could spare one for the football. Reluctantly she changed one of the channels so we (I was there with the girlfriend) didn’t have have to squint at the minute screen at the bar.

Secondly, we ordered some food to eat whilst watching the game. Nothing too fancy, just standard pub food and they couldn’t even get that right. It was downright ordinary. Thirdly, some of the patrons thought it must have been odd that we were watching football and asked what country we were from. Anyway, rant over and onto the game itself.

It was disappointing that Melbourne didn’t take away all three points from the game after completely dominating the first half and most of the second. A positive to come out of it was the style of play which was reminiscent of some of the form of late last season but disappointment that we didn’t make the most of our opportunities and we also found Clint Bolton in fine form.

All the new signings, played well and I was extremely pleased with the performance of Jose Luis Lopez and his command of the midfield and his combinations with fellow Costa Rican, Hernandez. Honourable mentions go to Ney Fabiano and Thwaite as well for their efforts. The injection of Celeski late on was another positive as he carried on the form that he showed in our failed Olympics campaign. Couldn’t have really expected to play more than he did, considering that he only got off the plane 24 hours earlier.

Plenty to pleased about, but overall it was probably two points lost than a point gained. Hopefully the result doesn’t come back to bite us in the arse later on in the season. Luckily there were two other draws so we are not that far off the pace. As long as don’t rack up five in a row like we did last year and I’ll be a happy man. And next time I will be off to a pub that gives a shit about football.

Tags: jose luis lopez, melbourne victory, sydney fc

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