Victory in Melbourne 

The Melbourne Victory’s Northern Terrace certainly set the tone for last night’s clash against Sydney in what was one very important match for the Victory. Whilst not condoning the use of flares, it certainly looked impressive and was very hellish indeed. The boys certainly responded with a great come from behind win. For a more detailed analysis, you will have to read my latest au.fourfourtwo.com blog post.

The other main talking point for the night was certainly the clash between Danny Allsopp and John Kosmina. For those who haven’t seen it, here it is. Mike Cockerill’s butchering-of-the-english-language response is hilarious.

Allsopp, who has added an aggressive streak to his game of late, set the tone for the rest of his team mates with an aggressive attack both on and off the ball and they duly responded.

It was nice to get back on the winner’s list last night with a 4-0 thumping of Perth. But as the title suggests the opposition, to put it simply were quite ordinary. Could you imagine what the scoreline would have been if Melbourne were at full strength with Hernandez and Fabiano available, it could have been quite scary. And to be honest I got a little bored throughout the second half and spent most of it watching and listening to the Northern Terrace (shown above) in action.

The crowd of 18,000 was quite disappointing but the odd kick off (5pm on a Saturday) would have contributed to the number of people not being able to attend along with the prospect of seeing Perth in action. Thankfully we only play them once at home this year. Crowd numbers should be boosted for the next home game, which in all likelihood will be a top of the table clash against Sydney. Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend :(.

It was good also to see Danny Allsopp back on the scorer’s sheet with a double, which was also especially good for my A-League Fantasy Football team as he is my captain. It was also amusing to see Archie Thompson efforts to get on the scoresheet were more often than thwarted by his teamates much to his frustration.

Not much else to write about the game in general but after playing every team once its great to be sitting solely on top of the table with things looking promising heading into the international break. Hopefully it can continue for the rest of the season.

Its always good to be on top of the league, even its only two weeks into the season. But what is far more pleasing is the style in which yesterday’s win was achieved in what was atrocious conditions. It was also good to see we tried to stick with our passing game (as did Wellington with theirs) on a pitch that had more water than most of our state’s dams and didn’t resort to the long ball that was prevalent throughout last season.

Standout player for the Victory was Danny Allsopp, who after a pretty poor game last week made two classy finishes (and could have almost had a third with a sublime chip that was cleared off the line - he must have been watching the Olympic mens final) and then turned provider for Ney Fabiano’s first goal in a Victory shirt. Nice to see him also get on the scoresheet after going so close last week.

After many weeks away from home it will be great to see the Victory back in Melbourne next Friday night against Newcastle, a team we have struggled against since Gary van Egmond took charge. The five day turnaround is not ideal, especially with injury concerns for Vargas. Also with the possible returns of Thompson and Ward, only strengthens our line-up. I can’t wait for Friday!