Victory in Melbourne 

We may have had to wait an extra week for it, but the excitement is definitely building for the A-League’s first ever intracity derby. With the announcement today that the game has sold out, it is definitely going to be a spectacle to remember. Hopefully it is a match that lives up to the hype and is a pointer to all future encounters for both teams. For more of my thoughts on the derby, take a look at my first ever blog for Soccerlens, a site for which I will be making semi-regular contributions throughout the season.

Whilst it was all well and good that Melbourne kept its fourth clean sheet in a row, what was more concerning that it was the third game in a row in which the team failed to find the back of the net. One key factor in the failure of Carlos Hernandez to find the back of the net so far this season, something that he managed to do thirteen times last season.

Whilst critics and fans alike like to assume it is because he is carrying extra weight in my opinion it down to having to carry the weight of expectation of a season like the last one, especially in the continued absence of Archie Thompson. In my latest blog for Australian FourFourTwo I take those critics and fans to task, especially those who constantly question is weight and fitness.

As for the game itself, it was pretty riveting 0-0 draw. However that being said, I can’t actually remember either of the keepers having to make any crucial saves, especially Michael Petkovic. With the absence of Brebner through injury it was pleasing to see Merrick give Marvin Angulo given a full ninety minutes in which to strut his stuff. And the Costa Rican midfielder didn’t let him down, playing his best game so far for the club. If he gets regular game time, his confidence will grow and hopefully take some of that pressure of his fellow countryman.

On a slightly different note, I have also started contributing to Sam Kelly’s excellent blog about Argentinian football, Hasta El Gol Siempre in his weekly segment entitled Argentine’s Abroad. Whilst the Victory doesn’t contain any Argentinians I will be updating the readers of Hasta El Gol Siempre on the weekly exploits of Adelaide United’s Marcos Flores and Central Coast Mariners’ Patricio Perez.

It may still be well over a week away, but people are getting exciting about the first ever Melbourne A-League derby. That excitement may have something to do with the release of tickets to the general public, most of which would be Melbourne Victory fans considering it’s classed as a Heart home game.

I, myself picked up my tickets for the much anticipated clash on Monday afternoon. Usually I would be getting tickets in the Melbourne Active Support Areas, but due partly to going to the match with a number of people who are casual observers and the fact of where the Melbourne Victory active support would actual be located meant that I just got the cheapest reserved ticket I could find in what is classed as the “Away Supporters” section.

Whilst I am on the topic of active support there has been much consternation amongst the Victory’s active support at the amount of seating available for the club’s very large contingent of supporters. For an excellent summary and comment on the situation I would highly recommend having a look at this blog on Australian FourFourTwo, which is already causing much discussion.

If you are interested in what I had to say about the Victory’s 0-0 draw with the North Queensland Fury, check out my latest effort for Australian FourFourTwo.

I often feel that I am neglecting this blog of late, particularly as I tend to concentrate any analysis of the weekend’s game in my blogs for Australian FourFourTwo. Therefore, a midweek game provides me with a rare opportunity to have a look at a game solely for this blog. Unfortunately for me, Wednesday night’s game produced such a dire performance from both teams that if indeed I had to write a blog for Australian FourFourTwo I may well have struggled to string together 500 or so words.

For the second match in a row, we saw a former Melbourne Victory player appear in opposition colours on our home turf. On Sunday we saw Michael Theoklitos return to Melbourne in Brisbane Roar with both ends of AAMI Park chanting his name and giving him a clap before the start of each half. This was interspersed with some good natured booing and the odd “7-1” chant. Contrast that with the reception that Nick Ward received last night, where every touch was greeted with some derision because in many fans’ eyes, Ward had failed to live up to his massive potential whilst in the navy blue.

As for the game itself, as I alluded to in my opening paragraph, was fairly dire with very little for the 11,000 odd people to get enthused about. In fact, it looked like a match between two teams who had only played a game three or four days before. For many Melbourne fans they were hoping that the scintillating form shown on Sunday afternoon would continue over to this game. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be with the whole team looking a little flat against a Wellington team willing to put significant numbers behind the ball.

In what was a fairly lacklustre game there was one action or repeated actions that was constantly getting my goat. That being our distribution out from the back. Time and time again we would see Michael Petkovic kick the ball out from a goal kick or from after collecting the ball only to see it come flying back time as our five foot nothing midfield and striker failed to get their head on the ball.

Whilst some part of the blame can be placed at the feet of Petkovic, some blame must be also attributed to our central defenders. As soon as Petkovic collected the ball they failed to provide themselves as an outlet for distribution. Say what you like about Muscat but more often than not he would make himself available for this option. Constantly seeing the ball fly over their heads was hardly conducive for great attacking play and Ricardinho’s frustration at times was quite obvious as he got beaten time and time again by the Wellington defenders.

This action of coming out of defence has always been an issue for the Victory, probably even from Day One. We have never really had a great header of the ball to target in these cases and against team with big tall defenders we tend to struggle and our fluidity in attack is reduced as a result. It’s definitely something for the coaching staff to look at.

With all that out of the way we look forward to Saturday night where the Victory head north to take on the North Queensland Fury. During the week, Fury coach Franz Straka has stoked the fires questioning Kevin Muscat’s toughness whilst some of his players are kind of happy that Muscat isn’t there to torment them. Hopefully the Victory boys can pick themselves from Wednesday’s disappointing performance and get the three points.

If you do want to read what I wrote after last week’s win over Brisbane, you can do so here.

It may be Thursday and the next round’s game fast approaching but I thought it would be still be an opportune time to point everyone in the direction of my latest effort for 442. After three weeks of talking points, there wasn’t too much to talk about in relation to Sunday’s win over Gold Coast United and that was the subject of my blog. Basically it was a blog about nothing, in other words, a Seinfeld blog.

The week also saw the departure of Nick Ward as headed over the Tasman to try his luck with the Wellington Phoenix. Clearly out of favour with the Victory hierarchy it was looking rather desperate for the former Perth Glory man and a trip over the ditch may be the best thing for him. I remember when he first joined the Victory during our tumultuous third season and almost inspired us to an unlikely finals campaign. His contributions during our double-winning season of 2008/09 were again notable and many will hold dear that goal he scored against Sydney FC in that memorable 3-2 win. However, it was contribution or lack thereof during the 2009/10 season and subsequent ACL campaign that put many fans and ultimately the coaching staff offside. All in all it was a disappointing end to a Victory career that promised so much.

So it was with little fanfare that Melbourne Victory announced that Ricardo Weslei de Campelo, otherwise known as Ricardinho would be the club’s twenty-third and final signing as well as being the striker we desperately need at the moment.

However, what was surprising about the whole announcement was that the Victory also announced that their new signing would also be their international marquee for the next two seasons. With very little information to be found apart from the odd YouTube clip and a very limited Wikipedia page about our new striker, it is hardly the stuff that inspires the need to be made our international marquee. Whilst not denying it could be a stroke of genius on behalf of Messrs Cole and Merrick, I hardly think that Ricardinho fits the bill as an international marquee. Players such as Fowler, Yorke and Juninho are all worthy of international marquee status, but not our Ricardinho, not yet anyway.

To the player himself, he has been nicknamed ‘King of the Dribble’ and if the above YouTube clip (around the 35 second mark) from his recent stint in the K-League is anything to go by then it seems a fair assessment. He is also seems to be of a similar mould to our other marquee, Archie Thompson and Merrick has definitely shown his hand in the type of striker that he likes. Let’s hope that when Thompson returns from injury that both of them can work in tandem.

Many fans and observers of Melbourne Victory have made the comment that the team needs more of a target man to add a bit of variety. What they forget is that the role target man has never really worked for the Victory, with the inability of both Ney Fabiano and the ill-fated Nik Mrdja to get on the scoresheet and fit into Merrick’s system as prime examples.

It will be interesting to see how quickly Ricardinho finds his feet in the A-League and it looks like Merrick and Co. will be easing him into things as there is talk of him not being available for another two weeks and with him not having kicked a ball in three months it seems a wise thing to do. Here’s hoping he is a success and he causes me to end my self-imposed ban on buying a new Victory shirt.

Whilst it was great to see Melbourne Victory finally play a competitive match at AAMI Park but as I alluded to in my previous post the whole experience was dulled a little by the influence two participants mentioned. For my very brief thoughts on the game you can check out my latest blog for 442, although as is often my habit, I undertake a bit of reminiscing and talk more about the Victory’s first ever game against Olympic Park rather than the game itself.

Having been watching the team basically play indoors for the past four seasons it was a bit weird to be shivering a little as I stood there watching the play in action and it took almost half an hour to drink the beer that I purchased at half time. As for the viewing experience (the game aside) my current view is from the South End (who were a bit flat on the night) and it is much better than the view that I experienced at Docklands Stadium. In fact I am quite happy with my spot.

Following the weekend, it has felt like we have been going through a series of high and lows or swings and roundabouts (if that is your kind of thing). First there was the concern of Hernandez and his knee after being on the wrong end of one of many ordinary Perth Glory tackles and then finding out it should all be okay. Then there was concern over Billy Celeski and his newly reconstructed knee after an incident at training and fearing the worst only to be told it wasn’t as bad as first thought. Finally there was the announcement yesterday that subject to a medical, Melbourne would be unveiling their new Brazilian signing on Thursday to compliment yesterday’s signing of Welsh winger, Geoff Kellaway. At last we will have a striker of some sorts - let’s hope he’s a good one.

Saturday night at AAMI Park saw two of the worst performances you will ever see on a football field. One was by Gerard Parsons, who quite simply put in one of the worst refereeing performances that has ever been witnessed in the A-League in its short history. His decision to “let the game flow” without consequence resulted in Perth Glory running amok in the Victory midfield without immunity. The other was caused directly by the actions of Parsons, whose decision allowed Jacob Burns (may he never where the Socceroos jersey again) to be at his thuggish best and the fact that he was still on the field at the end of the match was indeed a miracle.

I was going to include a picture of Parsons but he is not listed on the A-League website as one of their referees so I used the nearest likeness I could find.

In the aftermath of the Victory’s dramatic three-all draw with Sydney FC the thing that struck me was how Ernie Merrick had sent out his team without a recognised striker and still managed to score three goals. For me, it all came down to the formation that he sent out on the night and that is the subject of my latest blog for FourFourTwo. For an alternative view on the game check out this excellent summation by The Football Tragic.

Welcome to Victory In Melbourne’s minute by minute analysis of Melbourne Victory’s first match of its 2010/11 A-League campaign against SydneyFC. All the action kickoffs at 8:00pm AEST and we will be keeping you up-to-date with all that happens on the pitch.

Note: This page does not automatically update so you are going have to keep hitting that refresh button like mad to keep abreast of what’s going on.

Whilst you are watching the game or following this minute by minute feel free to pass on your comments as the action unfolds, by either of two methods:

1) By emailing neiljzimmerman@gmail.com
2) Or tweeting Victory In Melbourne
3) Or leave a comment below

7:18pm: Aren’t we all a little sick of seeing Melbourne Victory play Sydney FC with this being the fifth time in a row that the two teams have met each other. Without a recognised striker after Kruse was a late omission (not that you could really class him as a striker in all honesty) it will be interesting to see how Ernie Merrick sets out the team.

7:44pm: Today is Kevin Muscat’s 37th birthday and he’ll sure to be wishing to expunge the memories of the last time that these two met.

Victory staring XI: Petkovic (gk), Muscat (c), Dugandzic, Sukha, Broxham, Brebner, Vargas, Pondeljak, Hernandez, Berger, Leijer

The other team: Reddy(gk), Ryall, Keller, Foxe, Musialik, Carle, Brosque, McFlynn(c), Bridge, Jamieson, Byun

0 min: And we’re off. Oh great, we have Matthew Breeze in charge which should make things interesting.

4 mins: After a fairly cagey opening on what looks like a pretty poor surface (a combination of the weather and the egg-ball code one would think) Hayden Fox heads over the crossbar from a Scott Jamieson cross. Melbourne will surely need to defend better at set pieces than they did at that one. Seeing that Melbourne is playing without a recognised striker (surely there is someone on the youth team) Hernandez, Pondeljak and Dugandzic are playing as a front three. Don’t really like this tactic as it robs Melbourne of Hernandez’s creativity in the midfield.

8 mins: Byun still probably thinking about that penalty last season dwells on the ball too long and allows Dugandzic to steal and force him to concede a corner. It appears that Vargas’ shaved head has confused the Sydney FC supporters (which doesn’t take much) as they booed his hopeful long ball thinking that it was Muscat who had hit the long ball.

14 mins: Does the start of this season remind you much of the Victory’s first season. Back in that season they started their campaign away to Sydney and followed that with a first home game against Perth Glory at Olympic Park. Fast forward to this season and Melbourne is playing away to Sydney and following that up with their first home game at the new AAMI Park. Back to more footballing matters, Dugandzic is creating a heap of problems for the Sydney defence. On two occasions he has made it to the byline and pulled the ball back. Unfortunately for the Victory, no one has been there to finish off his good work. Melbourne looking much more composed than their opposition at the moment.

20 mins: An update for Jesse Fink and all those other Nick Carle lovers out there. The player of Uruguayan and Chilean descent and that ill-fated rabone has been rarely sighted so far apart from a decent cross that again found Hayden Foxe unmarked. Once again the redhead defender put it wide of the mark.

30 mins: Not much to report in the last ten minutes or so with much of the play taking place in the middle  of the park. Neither team is really imposing themselves on this one.

35 mins: Petkovic in his first official game in Victory colours is quickly off his line to deny the serial diver as the ball is delightfully chipped into his path. And who says I can’t pay those boys in baby blue a compliment. Moments later, Carle picks up the first yellow for the game. Good to see that his time in England hasn’t improved his tackling at all.

36 mins: Goal. A horrendous error from the birthday boy sees Sydney pinch a goal as the Melbourne Victory defender has pocket picked by Bridge only metres out from goal in a monumental brain fade. It’s a simple finish from Brosque to put the Sydneysiders a goal up. Sydney fans obviously loving the irony of the moment but I’m not.

45 mins: And there goes the half time whistle. Considering that Melbourne a playing without a traditional striker it was all going rather well until that Muscat cock up which gifted Sydney a goal. With Celeski, Ward and Angulo on the bench I really can’t see Merrick taking a backward but we really need that striker Geoff Lord was talking about earlier this week.

46 mins: Second half kicks off with Melbourne needing to create some goal scoring chances to put the pressure on their baby blue opponents. No changes at the half for either team. It will be interesting to see what the crowd figure will be tonight considering the other codes that have been in action in Sydney today. Via the television coverage it’s pretty difficult to really to ascertain what the crowd is.

53 mins: Goal. Another defensive error and another goal for Sydney. This time it’s Berger’s failure to clear with a header that allows McFlynn to loop his own header over a despairing Petkovic. During the Sydney celebrations, Billy Celeski comes on for Surat Sukha. It’s good to see him back.

58 mins: That is an extremely soft yellow card to Vargas as he tangles with Alex Brosque, with the serial diver making the most of the slightest of contact from the Victory defender. Resulting free kick crashes into the wall.

61 mins: I really wish Simon Hill would stop referring to this match as ‘The Big Blue’. It is rather a lame name for a clash that will be soon be demoted to our second spot in terms of hated rivals. Is there even the need for a name for a clash between teams from two different cities. It’s not like Manchester and Liverpool have a name for their matches.

65 mins: GOOAAALLLLLL!!!!!! Broxham pulls one back for the Victory with a clumsy looking finish as headed the ball onto his foot and into the goal. Coincidentall

67 mins: GOAAALLLLLL!!! Who says we a striker as Dugandzic brings the Victory back on level terms as he gets on the end of a Pondeljak cross to shut The Cove right up. Shortly after Muscat almost contrives to gift Sydney another goal but Bridge somehow manages to find the knees of Petkovic with the goal at his mercy. The game certainly has liven up as Pondeljak is winding back the clock and exposing Byun’s lack of defensive accountability.

71 mins: In all that excitement I forgot to mention the crowd of 12,106 which is not much better than the crowd pulled by that other Melbourne team on a Thursday.

73 mins: GOAAALLLLL!!!! Celeski puts Melbourne ahead with an easy tap-in after some brilliant lead up play from Mate Dugandzic who in combination with Pondeljak have turned this game on its head. I thought for a moment there that the young winger had wasted the opportunity but showed brilliant composure to take out three defenders and set up Celeski. Sydney looking extremely shellshocked by this turn of events.

79 mins: The mood in this house has just gone up a notch. It wasn’t looking that good fifteen minutes ago but now with a little over ten minutes to go we now need the boys to hold onto the game. Not long after Melbourne’s third goal a voice could be heard from the stands directed at Hayden Foxe questioning his defensive abilities: “Thats what you get paid for!”

87 mins: I lose coverage for a minute or two there as somehow Sydney pulls a goal back. Not sure exactly what happened there apart from Shannon Cole grabbing the equaliser possible due to a Petkovic error.

90 mins: Three minutes of stoppage time coincides with the irony of Brosque complaining about Broxham going rather too easily under a challenge. Mr Pot meet Mr Kettle.

90+3 mins: Sydney almost grab a late winner as Vargas clears a goal bound effort from the goal line and then Brebner uses his posterior to deny Carle a winning goal on his Sydney debut.

90+4 mins: And thus it ends 3-3 in what was a scintillating second half. Muscat absolutely fuming after the match as he questions the free kick that resulted in Sydney’s third goal. My apologies to Michael Petkovic for the third goal as it was a well taken free kick rather than a ‘keeping error. I know a tipped a draw for this one and would have been happy with that result at the start of the game but when we were 3-2 up a win against all odds would have been great.