* - my text are in green

Even with such a short history such as Melbourne Victory’s can you imagine life without the team we have all grown to love over the last eight years. Well that’s the fate that may face fans of Spanish side, Real Oviedo - one of Spain’s most famous football clubs. Faced with possibility of their club disappearing off the face of the earth Real Oviedo have taken the rare step of offering shares in their club to the general public so that they may have the chance of raising the necessary €2 million required by the 17th November. What had started as a plea to Spanish football fans for fans has spread throughout the world with a lot of credit going to The Guardian’s Spanish football expert, Sid Lowe, who also happens to be a Real Oviedo fan.

The response has been immense with over €1.3 million being raised with four days to go. Shares are only €11.50 (or around AUD$15) each for foreign investors and myself have bought one but I am seriously thinking about a few more. You may think why should I put my hard earned cash into a club I barely know anything about. Well firstly you would be doing your bit to help out some fellow football fans and plus this is a rare opportunity for a football fan to own part of a football club. At only €11.50 per share it is a relative bargain but I insist that no one contributes more than they can afford. For all your questions about what owning a shares please read this important notice.

With all that of the way here’s a little more information about the club, which has been taken from their website.

This historic club was established back in 1926 and became the first Asturian club to promote to First Division in 1933. Unfortunately, the Spanish Civil War prevented it from becoming part of that reduced group of La Liga winners. The mid-30s had been a real golden age for football in Oviedo, finishing in third position for two seasons in a row. Notwithstanding this, in the end, the outbreak of the Spanish conflict brought the trenches right into Real Oviedo’s home ground, the magical Buenavista Stadium.

Then, let us travel fast forward in time and we could find Real Oviedo at the beginning of the new millennium playing in the top-flight at a brand-new stadium called Carlos Tartiere, which holds 30,5000 spectators, before more than 21,000 season-ticket holders after thirty-seven seasons among the Spanish elite. Expectations were great at the beginning of that ill-fated 2000-2001 season, Real Oviedo was struggling to qualify to play UEFA Cup once again by the January transfer-window. Six months on and it got sadly relegated to Second Division on the last fixture of the season. There and then its 2001 misery odyssey began.

Two seasons later, Real Oviedo tragically plummeted to the Spanish Fourth Division. Once more, it had been caught in the middle of the political crossfire of the people in power, it had been neglected by its board of directors, betrayed by its players and trampled under the feet of a whimsical mayor. However, against all the odds, its supporters kept this football club alive by getting involved in all the needs it demanded to be saved from a more than likely demise.

However, against all the odds, its supporters kept this football club alive by getting involved in all the needs it demanded to be saved from a more than likely demise.

Today, almost ten years later, Real Oviedo is in Segunda B (Third Division), and the struggle to get back to First Division keeps the supporters going. There are more than 11,500 season-ticket holders whose hearts are still beating in blue, full of hope for a better future.

Their unique identity has been the result of their painful banishment from the place they belong to, their true feelings have been shaped by all that bitterness they have been through: forsaken by local and regional governments, looted by former owners and mocked by rivals.

Now, Real Oviedo tries to avoid its nemesis and November 17th is the deadline, the supporters try to prevent their beloved club from uttering its swansong. Please, step ahead and become a hero: contribute to Real Oviedo’s dreams of a better future to come by buying even just a single share (€11.50). Then, as this traditional supporters’ chant goes, ‘We shall be back in First Division, once again’.

It has almost been five years since I last went on an away trip but when way back when the fixture was released I saw that Melbourne Victory were travelling north to play Sydney on my birthday I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to reacquaint myself with the joys of the away game. And luckily for me what a game it turned out to be. In fact it turned out to be one of the best birthday presents ever.

Away trips are wonderful things and if you haven’t been on at least one I highly recommend it. Counting Saturday night’s game I have only been on four away trips - two to Brisbane and two to Sydney. However I have always wanted to go to Adelaide and the inclusion of Western Sydney means that there is another opportunity of reasonably close away trips. This is not to say that I don’t want to go to Newcastle, Gosford or Perth but they are a bit lower of my priority list. But I digress a little, let me tell you about what I think are some best things about away trips.

Banter

Whether it be on the street, at the train station, on a bus or at the stadium there is nothing like a bit of good-natured banter with opposition supporters as long as it is kept reasonably clean. There is nothing better than football fans trash talking their opponents and generally talking up their own team. Take away the football shirts and the rivalries and we are all basically fans of football so we do have something in common.

Invincibility

I can’t actually remember the last time I have worn my Melbourne Victory shirt to a home game as I prefer the “casual” look but anytime I go to an away game I always pull on my team’s “colours”. For me wearing the Melbourne Victory shirt on enemy gives me a certain sense of invincibility. An invincibility that allows me to banter with opposition supporters and generally be much more of a smart arse than I would be at a Victory home game.

Comradeship

More often than not as away fans you are usually outnumbered by the home support so you develop a sense of comradeship with your fellow supporters, who for me are more often than often complete strangers. High fives are shared when goals are scored and knowing glances are exchanged when goals are conceded. That comradeship also lends itself to joining in chants and songs you and gives you the impression that you are drowning out the opposition support. There is also a sense of comradeship with the team as they know you have made a bit of an effort to see them play.

Winning

There is no better feeling than seeing your team win on the road. Well there is seeing your team win at home but that feeling is different. Fortunately in the four times I have been on away trips I am yet to see the Victory lose with three of those occasions being wins and the joy one feels from an away win is truly unbelievable. Saturday’s away game was particularly special, with the manner of the win being one of the most satisfying I have experienced. That may have also been down to the fact that it was my birthday. Did I already mention that?

Having been away overseas for the first three weeks of the season last night provided me with my first opportunity to see the “newish looking” Melbourne Victory in action. The number of beverages that were consumed before and during the game precludes me from providing any detailed tactical analysis of the game and despite the result I was relatively pleased with what I saw.

One thing that particularly pleased me was the performance of Marco Rojas. Rojas, who arrived at the Victory with much fanfare at the start of last season, had like many of teammates a pretty disastrous 2011-12. He looked to be a shadow of the player that starred at Wellington Phoenix and it was quite clear that Rojas was a player lacking confidence, which resulted in limited game time for the winger.

Fast forward to this season and Rojas looks much like the player we saw in Wellington Phoenix colours. He has already scored two goals this season, one in the derby loss and the winner against Adelaide last week, which is two more than he scored all last season. He almost had a chance for a third last night in the second minute of the game but screwed his shot just wide as he looked to be caught in two minds as to whether to shoot or centre to an onrushing Archie Thompson.

That attempt aside it was pleasing to see Rojas’ constant runs down the right wing and his willingness to present himself to the ball shows that he has embraced Postecoglou’s style of play and it is a style of play that definitely suits the young New Zealander. The A-League needs players of the ilk of Rojas, players who are willing to run and take on players as it captures the imagination of those who watch the game. So here’s hoping that not only from a Melbourne Victory point of view but a A-League and New Zealand point we continue to see Marco Rojas improve in leaps and bounds.

It was of course Ange Postecoglou’s first game in charge and with expectations high it was interesting to follow from afar the comments of fans as to how they were playing under the tutelage of the former Queensland Brisbane Roar manager. Overall it appears that there was much to be pleased about and at this early stage it is already a marked improvement on the debacle that was last season. Of course you get those who expect us to be already playing like Barcelona or at the very least like Brisbane Roar of the last two seasons. But with such a high turnover from last season and a lot of new faces expecting instant result is just plain ludicrous. It would be like myself playing a few hands on OnlinePoker.com and then thinking I could match it in a high stakes tournament. In fact I would be surprised if the Victory were to be playing the style Ange wants consistently by the middle of the season.

With new recruit Marcos Flores yet to arrive in the country due to visa issues much attention was focused on new recruits Guilherme Finkler and Jonathan Bru and by all accounts their unofficial debuts were impressive with the Brazilian Finkler picking up the opening goal. Of course the arrival of Flores is much anticipated, especially by myself as it will go a long way to filling the void in both my heart and the hearts of many Victory fans left by the departure of Carlos Hernandez. It will also mean that I won’t feel so guilty about salivating over an opposition player as I did during Flores’ time at Adelaide United. It will be interesting to see how he fits into Ange’s system and in fact I look forward to seeing what Ange’s system actually looks like whether it be in the flesh or on the television, which is more likely the case.

The Port Melbourne match was the first in a series of five friendlies against VPL and State League opposition over the next five weeks and I will be looking forward to hearing how the team progresses towards the start of the new season and for those actually attend those games it would be good to hear some feedback first hand in boring lonely ol’ Canberra (aka the place without an A-League side).

* - I actually knew the game was on.

• Finally Melbourne Victory get to play two home games against Melbourne Heart. Both of which are to be played at Etihad Stadium, which is a tiny bit of a disappointment. The first of these derbies takes place in the first round of the season and is a good way to kick off the season’s festivities.
• There is an away game in Sydney on my birthday which brings the very distinct possibility of a road trip - the first for at least five seasons. Speaking of road trips it is good to see that Adelaide finally gets to host us in two of our three encounters. That’s a road trip I have always wanted to do.
• It is good to see that the Australia Day match against the aforementioned Sydney has been maintained although in my opinion it should alternate from city to city every season.
• There should be some cracking crowds for the first three Victory games as they firstly host Heart, then travel north for Ange’s return to Suncorp Stadium and then a return for our only home game against Adelaide.

When I originally began this blog way back in 2007 one of the main inspirations was the American-based site Pitch Invasion. Over time I have visited it less and less and thus was extremely pleased when I heard that editor, Tom Dunmore would be releasing a best of book that would encapsulate the very best of what Pitch Invasion had to offer. So having now bought and read the book I have also reviewed it and you can read that review over at the very excellent Valderramarama.

So who would have thought that it would take twenty-one matches for someone to realise the key to Melbourne Victory’s success would be a functional midfield. Who would have thought? How much do they pay these people?

Way back in October not long after the season had started even I could see that the problem with the Victory’s lack of early season success was down to a massive hole in midfield. That hole resulted in a disconnection between the attacking members of the team and those mainly tasked with doing defensive duties. Up until the weekend under Jim Magilton’s reign we had seen that gaping hole still there which resulted in countless long balls hoofed up to our five foot nothing forwards only to be cleared predictably by their opponents. In the derby it resulted in Kristian Sarkies having so much time on the ball that he was actually able to hit a pass to a teammate and not an opposition player. It resulted in some of the most dire football that I have even seen from the Victory, even worse than some of the crap dished up in our first season.1

So disheartened by the derby performance last week I was about to write a diatribe on why Magilton wasn’t the man for the Melbourne Victory job in the long term but time constraints and suitable lack of inspiration and swear words meant that I only wrote about one hundred words before Friday night’s kickoff. In many ways I am glad that I didn’t write that diatribe because Friday night’s performance gave me a glimmer of hope that I thought may have already been killed off. In light of that I will reserve my judgement on the Northern Irishman (or Scotsman if you read Australia’s most popular newspaper as voted by themselves) until the end of season.

So what was actually different from the previous twenty matches that allowed the team to play what appeared to be a functional and vaguely entertaining brand of football with a midfield that actually worked against the Central Coast Mariners. Well after some pretty dire football in the last couple of weeks Magilton actually decided to do something different. Recent loan signing Mark Milligan was moved to the centre of midfield from the centre of defence, a change brought about mostly by the recent signing (to the end of the season I think) of Spanish defender Ubay Luzardo, played his first game in the blue and white on Friday night. Paired with Milligan was Jimmy Jeggo (whose very name conjures up images of millions of swooning Korean girls - don’t google that by the way), who picked up his first ever start. This midfield combination was in stark contrast to the previous combination of Broxham and Brebner as it was more mobile and could actual provide that much need link between defence and attack. In other words it provided some fluidity to the Melbourne midfield. Up ahead from right to left were Marco Rojas, Carlos Hernandez (who made a much needed return to the starting XI) and Harry Kewell. These three played behind Archie Thompson, who reprised his role as the lone striker. Some may have called it a 4-4-1-1 formation but I prefer to call it a 4-2-3-1 formation as illustrated below. But no matter what you call it, the main thing was that it actually worked.

So there you have it a functional midfield which gave us a team that played liked a team and not a collection of individuals and instantly things look a bit better on the pitch. Let’s hope that continues this week against Brisbane Roar and we don’t again resort to old habits.

After last week’s Australia Day match against Sydney FC I had intended to ride my bike home but unfortunately on my way to the game my back tyre had gone completely flat so instead of riding home I had to walk my bike to Flinders Street Station in order to get home. Whilst the same thought may have occurred if I had been in the saddle but as I pushed my bike alongside the Yarra River with thousands of other fans I came to the conclusion that it was time to call it quits on Melbourne Victory’s season.

Whilst many would think that with nine matches to go in the season that this a big call but let me clarify what calling it quits means for me. After experiencing another match where the team again threw away a lead I decided that after all the troubles that this season has entailed that I have decided withdraw my emotional attachment from the team for the rest of the season. I will still go to games and still watch them when they play interstate but it will be more from the stand point of a supportive observer rather than a full-on fan with the result being of no consequence. This is mainly due to the fact that I believe nothing will come of this season - a season at its beginning promised so much but in the end won’t probably even deliver a finals appearance.

However, it must be added that this role of a supportive observer is null and void for the upcoming Melbourne Derby.