Victory in Melbourne 

Welcome to Victory In Melbourne’s minute by minute analysis of Melbourne Victory’s must win clash of their 2010 Asian Champions League campaign against Kawasaki Frontale at the Todoroki Athletics Stadium in Kanagawa. All the action kickoffs at 9:00pm AEST and we will be keeping you up-to-date with all that happens on the ptich. Whilst you are waiting for it all to happen you might as well check out what we know about Kawasaki Frontale here.

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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:

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1:18pm: Here at Victory In Melbourne we are not holding out too much hope of taking three points from this considering that the team will find it difficult to back up from Saturday’s efforts combined with the loss of key man, Archie Thompson. However, Mike Tuckerman over at The Roar thinks there may be cause for some optimisim.

8:59pm: How the hell does Nick Ward get a start over Marvin Angulo? He has been ordinary for at least the last month and should have been confined to the bench.

Moss gets a rare start in the Victory starting lineup and Muscat is on the bench. Starting XI: Moss (gk), Sukha, Broxham, Brebner, Mrdja, Vargas, Hernandez, Berger, Kruse, Ward, Leijer (c).

Kawasaki Starting XI: Aizawa (gk), Kawashima, Ito, Igawa, Tasaka, Kurotsu, Komiyama, Tae Se, Mori, Inamoto, Taniguchi, Renato Carlos.

3 mins: GOAL! Kawasaki’s first forward run results in a goal as the “Asian Wayne Rooney” Jong Tae Se puts one past Glen Moss at his near post. Not the ideal way to start a must win game. Melbourne under a lot of pressure at the moment.

8 mins: Almost another goal to the team from Kanagawa as Yuseke Tasaka sends a shot just wide of Moss’ left hand post. Melbourne yet to launch any reasonable attack at the moment.

11 mins: GOAL! A brilliant headed goal from Masaru Kurotsu after he gets on the end of mis-kicked free kick sees Kawasaki Frontale double their lead. This has all the hallmarks of turning really ugly. Moss is probably wishing he had stayed on the bench. His last start for the Victory saw him concede four goals and now two in eleven minutes.

15 mins: Melbourne obviously not used to playing on such a good surface. Even with the rain it plays at least 100 times better than Docklands Stadium and the SFS.

18 mins: Mrdja earns a free kick from dead in front for which Carlos Hernandez to work his magic. Unfortunately the magic is lacking as he sends it straight into the wall.

19 mins: Melbourne are getting absolutely killed down the right hand flank. Really shows how much we miss Matthew Kemp, who was probably our best player in our previos ACL campaign.

23 mins: GOAL! Renato Carlos is given an absolute paddock of space and duly makes the Victory with an well taken shot from distance given Glenn Moss no chance at all. I may have to stop this analysis if it gets too bad. Melbourne definitely looking like a team that played two hours of football only 72 hours ago.

26 mins: Dare I say we need Muscat just to sort the defence out.

30 mins: This referee is obviously from the Matthew Breeze school of refereeing. Hand out lots of cards and hand them out often. Three already in the first thirty minutes. Moss currently looking for a shovel to dig himself a hole so he can hide from this onslaught.

32 mins: From Kevin Muscat’s twitter alter ego “Seriously, if we just fucked off home at half-time, do you think any cunt would actually fucken notice? Fuck me dead…”

33 mins: Things get a little heated as Leijer and the Asian Wayne Rooney (hope that nickname isn’t based on his looks alone - although I guess it’s better than being called the Asian Carlos Tevez) come together after a rather errant Nick Ward tackle. Yellow cards for the both. First time the card count has exceeded the goal count for the game.

35 mins: Thirty-five minutes in and Melbourne yet to get a shot on target, or any shot whatsoever. However the A-League website begs to differ. Maybe they are feeling a little sorry for us.

38 mins: Robbie Slater just labelled this the worst performance by an Australian team in the ACL. Those 5-0 thrashing of Central Coast by Kawasaki (must love playing Australian teams) and the 6-0 thumping of Newcastle by Pohang Steelers would have to come close.

43 mins: Lo and behold Melbourne gets its first shot on goal as Vargas goes wide with a header.

44 mins: Can we stop with the quickly taken freekicks and concentrate on maintaining some sort of possession. Just get a decent ball in there for FFS.

45+3 mins: Referee Ghamdi hands out a red card to the Asian Wayne Rooney for god knows what. This guy is making Matthew Breeze looking like Pierluigi Collina at the moment. And you wonder why there isn’t any Asian referees at the World Cup.

45+4 mins: The referee finally puts Melbourne out of its first half misery. Will the red card give Melbourne a chance to grab a point? I severely doubt it.

53 mins: Sting really has gone out of game for the time being. Melbourne looking to minimise the damage at the moment. Lawrie McKinna via twitter: “The 1 positive thing from our trip to kawasaki was there were 4 starbucks within 100 m from our hotel.” Maybe Melbourne could have done with a few visits to wake them up before this match.

55 mins: Evan Berger makes way for Matthew Foschini, after Berger has got the run around for most of the night.

56 mins: A time for celebration. Our first corner as Angulo comes on for Robbie Kruse. Really should have started this one. Nick Ward at the back post heads the resulting corner well over the crossbar.

62 mins: Melbourne getting a bit more of the possession at the moment but still not creating any real chances of note. I wonder how many will turn out next week after this performance. Lucky to crack 15,000 I reckon.

63 mins: Renato Carlos goes down in the penalty area under a challenge for Sukha. Nothing coming from the referee with the Brazilian’s effort one that Alex Brosque would be proud of.

65 mins: Nick Ward must have been watching old school Brett Emerton video tapes in recent times as he has been pulling out the back pass a lot, all of them to little or no effect. As I said earlier, should never have started on the pitch.

69 mins: Melbourne creates its best chance of the night as a nice Carlos Hernandez slices open the Kawasaki defence. Unfortunately Mrdja can’t get on the end of it. Come on, we have to score at least one.

74 mins: Angulo has made a real difference since his introduction. Don’t know why we can’t start him in matches now as I think the ACL would really suit him. About sixteen minutes until our latest ACL campaign unofficially comes to an end before it really started.

77 mins: Is Nick Ward the most frustrating player out there at the moment? I think Melbourne fans have just found themselves a new boo boy to replace Danny Allsopp and Matthew Kemp.

78 mins: Glenn Moss makes his first save of the night and a pretty good one at that to deny a deflected shot.

80 mins: Dugandzic comes on for Ward as Melbourne makes it’s third and final substitution. And almost makes an immediate impact.

83 mins: Melbourne playing their best football of the night at the moment. A pity it’s too little too late and against a team that is 3-0 up and has been playing with ten men for almost a half.

90+1 mins: GOAL! Tanaguchi makes its four for Kawasaki as Melbourne is caught napping in the final minutes of the match. For Moss’ second consecutive game between the sticks he has picked the ball out of his net four times, although to be fair he hasn’t really been at fault for any of them.

90+2 mins: Second yellow for Broxham for remonstrating with his Kawasaki opponent sees him have a slightly early shower. A stupid action that will see him miss next week’s return leg in Melbourne or maybe he just wanted the week off.

90+3 mins: The referees whistle brings to an end any chance Melbourne has of progressing out of the group stages of the ACL. This was a campaign that never really got started as the Victory decided to concentrate on both the A-League and the ACL and unfortunately came up short in both. Kawasaki really caught Melbourne on the hop in the opening 21 minutes as they made the most of the lethargic start from the Victory, who were probably still thinking of Saturday night. Now, we have the gloating of the Adelaide supporters to look forward to, especially if they themselves make it out of their group. Need I remind them, that we will be in the ACL next year and they won’t be as you can’t qualify from bottom of the ladder. It’s petty but I don’t have much else to keep my spirits up at the moment.

After the crushing disappointment that was Saturday night (for my thoughts on the night you can read my latest 442 blog), it is now time for the Melbourne Victory boys to pick themselves up for the all-important match against fellow ACL strugglers, Kawasaki Frontale. With both teams on zero points after two games, it a must win game for the two teams, as a loss will pretty much put an end to any hopes of progressing to the next stage of the competition.

Being that I know even less about the team from Japan than I do about Beijing Guoan and Seongnam Ilhwa Chunma it was again time to ask Mike Tuckerman, regular The Roar and FourFourTwo contributor and Australian Football Weekly’s Asian football expert the questions to which we all want answers.

What style of play can we expect?

Some free-flowing, attacking football.Kawasaki are one of the most attack-minded sides in Asian football, thanks in part to the midfield promptings of playmaker Kengo Nakamura.Up front a strike force of North Korean international Chong Tese and Brazilians Juninho and Renatinho has seen Kawasaki finish top scorers for the past four J. League seasons in a row, and as we saw when Frontale beat Central Coast Mariners 5-0 in Gosford, they’re capable of scoring from all over the pitch.Frontale are less than watertight at the back though, and they have a tendency to crack under pressure, so it remains to be seen how they might perform should they go a goal down.

Who are the dangermen?

Kawasaki have got them all over the pitch.Kengo Nakamura is capable of splitting open a game with his incisive passing and accurate set pieces, while fellow attacking midfielder Vitor Junior should return after missing much of last season through injury.They’ve also drafted in much-travelled Japan international Junichi Inamoto, while Chong Tese is sometimes referred to as “the Asian Wayne Rooney,” and the bullocking North Korean striker is about as destructive a player as it gets.

Where do you think Melbourne has the advantage?

In the physical department. Kawasaki’s bustling strike force generally takes some stopping, but the likes of Kevin Muscat, Rody Vargas and Grant Brebner could give Victory the edge.

How did Kawasaki qualify?

By finishing second in the J. League. With three games to go, Kawasaki travelled to bottom club Oita Trinita knowing that a win would almost certainly wrap up their first ever J. League title. Instead they lost 1-0 and opened the door to Kashima Antlers, who eventually went on to win their third straight Japanese crown. The crushing disappointment was too much for coach Takashi Sekizuka, who stepped down during the off-season to be replaced by Tsutomu Takahata – a coach who took charge of Kawasaki on an interim basis in 2008.