Victory in Melbourne 

At the halfway mark of the season its nice to be sitting on top of the league after our second win in a row on the road. Much more pleasing was the way the result was achieved and the new attacking mentality of Ernie Merrick, a man not normally known for this attribute. It takes a brave man to send out a team with three strikers on the road, and a much braver coach when you consider two of those three strikers were returning from suspension.

After the Victory weathered the first twenty minutes of intense pressure by the Roar I was fairly confident that we would take out the three points as the Roar looked bereft of ideas in attack. Also our attacking triumvirate was looking extremely dangerous and Ney Fabiano was immense and didn’t look like he had just sat out the last six weeks. Maybe there was also sense of having to prove himself to both the team and the fans after such a long lay off.

Another standout was Billy Celeski whose pinpoint cross lead to the only goal for the game. He was dominant in the fifteen to twenty minutes leading up to the goal and capped it off with that cross. He has really raised his level in the last two weeks when the really needed someone in the midfield to really stamp themselves on the game.

The Victory can go into the mid season break feeling pretty happy with their position on the table considering the number of suspensions that have been accrued on the way. It has been good in recent times that the team has been a lot more disciplined of late and even their yellow card count is down. With this year’s competition being one of the closest, they can’t afford to slip up as they chase the title

Earlier in the day I went and watched the Victory women triumph over Perth Glory 3-0 which sees them sitting third on the ladder with two wins out of three matches, equal on points with both Sydney and Adelaide. This is also the subject of my latest au.fourfourtwo.com blog post, which can be found here.

So Ney Fabiano gets nine weeks for spitting at Robert Cornthwaite, whilst Dino Djulbic only gets five for spitting in the direction of a referee. Obviously the decision by Matthew Breeze cannot be questioned, as the referees never get it wrong do they. It also seems a little odd that the decision seems to be have been made without the input of the Adelaide players involved, namely Cornthwaite and Travis Dodd, who noted in the media earlier this week that he didn’t notice Fabiano deliberately spit at his teammate. Watch out for the appeal and a possible trip to the Court of Arbitration. The FFA needs to take a good hard look at its tribunal - its slowly becoming a bit of a farce.

Leading up to this match I realised I hadn’t seen Melbourne play Adelaide in Melbourne since the 6-0 whitewash of the 2006/07 Grand Final. For last year’s one and only home match against Adelaide I had to rely on text updates as I had other commitments. Also I realised during the game that I still have an intense dislike of Adelaide United - probably a little unhealthy I know but I was extremely happy when that final whistle had blown and we had won 1-0.

The talking point of the match was obviously the sending off on Ney Fabiano for allegedly spitting at Adelaide’s Robert Cornthwaite. I say allegedly because I was sitting at the opposite end of the ground to the incident plus the replays I have seen are pretty inconclusive. Its not like you see a big lurgy fly from the mouth of Fabiano in the direction of Cornthwaite. Fabiano was pretty fired up over the incident and it may just have been a case of him forgetting that old adage of “say it, don’t spray it”. I also think its a harsh call by John over at A seat at the A-League calling for Melbourne to dump him over the incident. Also I do tend to agree with him on the Cristiano “diving” call.

Friday night also saw the end of an era. It was the end of “Kevin Muscat never missing a penalty” era. Fortunately for him it rebounded nicely and he was able to tap home for the only goal of the game. And I must say what a difference a year makes. This time last year every time Matthew Kemp touched the ball he was greeted with jeers of derision. On Friday night every time he took a corner close to where I was sitting he was applauded and cheered.

Good performance by the team to maintain their style of play whilst being down to ten men. It was reminiscent of that Central Coast game back in our championship season. Lopez, still coming back from international duty was certainly missed in the midfield, but Celeski showed that he is capable of playing a different role in the midfield.

Also good to see we got almost 25,000 people to a game that clashed with an AFL final, that in itself only had 47,000 spectators. First time in our history that a Victory game has gone up against an AFL final and the result was extremely pleasing.

Things are certainly looking good - especially from the top of the table after the completion of the round. Hopefully it continues as we travel north to play the Central Coast Mariners and I hopefully find a decent place to watch the match.

As I said in my previous post, I was a little excited about Friday night’s game - first home game of the season and against Newcastle, a team for some reason I despise. Probably something to do with Joel Griffiths I’m sure. The afternoon pre-game was put also to good use, baiting members of my work’s Newcastle office.

Maybe, it was the first game of the season, or the fact there was no way I was going to wear my MV shirt from last year with “Patafta” on the back or most probably the effects of the beer drunk at after work drinks but I decided to dress up for the occasion - tie, vest, jacket, nice shirt, pants and shoes - you know the deal. Only problem, I don’t know how to tie a tie (don’t have to wear one for work) so I quickly learnt.

Anyway I was well rewarded for my dress sense with a 5-0 thumping of Newcastle and some excellent play from the Melbourne boys. The match started off slowly and I thought for a while it was going to be one of those nights where we dominate and then Joel Griffiths pops up in the 80th minute and bangs in the only goal of the game. But with a bit of tactical genius by Ernest Merrick (something you don’t hear me say to often), substituting an injured Thwaite for Archie Thompson, the flood of goals started as the Newcastle defence was made to look very ordinary. The main culprits being North and Covic.

There was a lot to be pleased about on Friday night - especially the way we played, but for me the standout players would have to be Hernandez, Lopez and Berger. An honourable mention goes to Ney Fabiano, who was unlucky not to get amongst the goals despite tireless running all night. I probably noticed his running more than mainly because of his running style. Make sure you have a look next time - its a bit odd. I am really enjoying our style of play at the moment and it makes for much more enjoyable viewing than what we were seeing same last season.

Was a bit disappointed with the crowd of only 22,000 - thought there would have been a few more with it being the first game of the season and all, but I guess everyone wasn’t as excited as I was. Hopefully in a couple of weeks time there will be a crowd of 30,000+ as we take on fellow league leaders, Adelaide.

And finally if you want to see me all dressed up for the game, visit here because it probably won’t happen again.

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!

A few weeks ago I asked the question “So Mr Vargas, who will you be supporting?” when Melbourne Victory took on Green Gully in a practice match. Well I needn’t have bothered as neither Rodrigo or Andy Vargas played in the match held last night, which Green Gully won convincingly 3-1 at an extremely cold and wet underfoot Green Gully Reserve.

Overall a pretty average performance from Melbourne last night against a team that was fielding most of its reserves and Under 21s players. Good debut from new signing Michael Thwaite, who looked very comfortable on the ball, but would have liked to see him play more in the centre of defence and not at right back. Other new signing, Ney Fabiano look good in patches with some neat touches but looked sadly short of match fitness.

The crowd also got to see some players that could quite possibly make up our youth team with Fabio Dilizia looking like a good prospect apart from giving away a penalty and picking up a rather harsh red card for his efforts. It wasn’t the only red card for the night with Berger picking up two yellows and Green Gully’s very own Muscat, Emanuel, picking up two yellows in very quick session to find himself having an early shower.

It was good to see Melbourne back in action, but I’m not sure if the frozen hands and feet were worth it at this early stage in the season. As I’ve said before I’ll give the next practice match in Epping a miss - too far away and probably even colder than it was last night.