An advantage is better than no advantage
Friday, February 19th, 2010
Earlier this week in my latest 442 blog I proposed that of most concern to Ernie Merrick and his backroom staff in the lead up to last night’s major semi-final first leg was that in 270 minutes of football so far this season against the boys in baby blue we had failed to find the back of the net.
So it was with some relief that when Nik Mrdja scored the opening goal for the Victory that 270 wouldn’t becoming 360 minutes. And then when Carlos Hernandez found the back of the net (captured so spectacularly in the image above) it looked like we would have a handy two goal advantage heading into the second leg. However, it wasn’t to be as supposed Melbourne Heart recruit, John Aloisi found the back of the net via a massive deflection from Kevin Muscat’s outstretched leg.
So I guess having a lead of 2-1 going into the second leg isn’t better than no lead at all although our serious issues with actually putting a striker on the pitch might be of significance after Nik Mrdja’s brain explosion and the resultant red card after elbowing Shannon Cole. Although the incident happened in the goal right in front of me I didn’t actually and have yet to see any replays. It was a stupid thing to do although to be honest I think Cole milked it for all its worth as he seem to get up rather quickly after it all happened. Also of interest is the fact that the linesman from over forty metres away could spot the incident but the one fifteen couldn’t. Linesman astound me sometimes.
Considering the players missing I thought the team put in a pretty solid effort and outplayed Sydney for the most part. Only when we were down to ten men did they really apply any pressure but more often than not it came to nothing. Now we have to have to wait over two weeks for the second leg with our first Asian Champions League match against Beijing Guoan coming up on Tuesday as a taster filler. Hopefully by the next leg (pardon the pun) Archie Thompson or even Robbie Kruse makes some kind of miracle recovery so we don’t end up playing a 4-6-0 formation.


