Victory in Melbourne 

I often feel that I am neglecting this blog of late, particularly as I tend to concentrate any analysis of the weekend’s game in my blogs for Australian FourFourTwo. Therefore, a midweek game provides me with a rare opportunity to have a look at a game solely for this blog. Unfortunately for me, Wednesday night’s game produced such a dire performance from both teams that if indeed I had to write a blog for Australian FourFourTwo I may well have struggled to string together 500 or so words.

For the second match in a row, we saw a former Melbourne Victory player appear in opposition colours on our home turf. On Sunday we saw Michael Theoklitos return to Melbourne in Brisbane Roar with both ends of AAMI Park chanting his name and giving him a clap before the start of each half. This was interspersed with some good natured booing and the odd “7-1” chant. Contrast that with the reception that Nick Ward received last night, where every touch was greeted with some derision because in many fans’ eyes, Ward had failed to live up to his massive potential whilst in the navy blue.

As for the game itself, as I alluded to in my opening paragraph, was fairly dire with very little for the 11,000 odd people to get enthused about. In fact, it looked like a match between two teams who had only played a game three or four days before. For many Melbourne fans they were hoping that the scintillating form shown on Sunday afternoon would continue over to this game. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be with the whole team looking a little flat against a Wellington team willing to put significant numbers behind the ball.

In what was a fairly lacklustre game there was one action or repeated actions that was constantly getting my goat. That being our distribution out from the back. Time and time again we would see Michael Petkovic kick the ball out from a goal kick or from after collecting the ball only to see it come flying back time as our five foot nothing midfield and striker failed to get their head on the ball.

Whilst some part of the blame can be placed at the feet of Petkovic, some blame must be also attributed to our central defenders. As soon as Petkovic collected the ball they failed to provide themselves as an outlet for distribution. Say what you like about Muscat but more often than not he would make himself available for this option. Constantly seeing the ball fly over their heads was hardly conducive for great attacking play and Ricardinho’s frustration at times was quite obvious as he got beaten time and time again by the Wellington defenders.

This action of coming out of defence has always been an issue for the Victory, probably even from Day One. We have never really had a great header of the ball to target in these cases and against team with big tall defenders we tend to struggle and our fluidity in attack is reduced as a result. It’s definitely something for the coaching staff to look at.

With all that out of the way we look forward to Saturday night where the Victory head north to take on the North Queensland Fury. During the week, Fury coach Franz Straka has stoked the fires questioning Kevin Muscat’s toughness whilst some of his players are kind of happy that Muscat isn’t there to torment them. Hopefully the Victory boys can pick themselves from Wednesday’s disappointing performance and get the three points.

If you do want to read what I wrote after last week’s win over Brisbane, you can do so here.

It may be Thursday and the next round’s game fast approaching but I thought it would be still be an opportune time to point everyone in the direction of my latest effort for 442. After three weeks of talking points, there wasn’t too much to talk about in relation to Sunday’s win over Gold Coast United and that was the subject of my blog. Basically it was a blog about nothing, in other words, a Seinfeld blog.

The week also saw the departure of Nick Ward as headed over the Tasman to try his luck with the Wellington Phoenix. Clearly out of favour with the Victory hierarchy it was looking rather desperate for the former Perth Glory man and a trip over the ditch may be the best thing for him. I remember when he first joined the Victory during our tumultuous third season and almost inspired us to an unlikely finals campaign. His contributions during our double-winning season of 2008/09 were again notable and many will hold dear that goal he scored against Sydney FC in that memorable 3-2 win. However, it was contribution or lack thereof during the 2009/10 season and subsequent ACL campaign that put many fans and ultimately the coaching staff offside. All in all it was a disappointing end to a Victory career that promised so much.

Whilst it was disappointing not to take all three points against the boys in baby blue on Saturday night the fact that there wasn’t a repeat of our last encounter was very welcoming as was the maintaining of our three point buffer at the top of the table.

What was really disappointing was the actions of a small minority of Melbourne fans who thought it was cool to be a hool’ and caused some some problems both before and after the game. For my full thoughts on this issue, you can read my latest 442 blog.

As for the game itself, Archie Thompson was immense creating numerous chances for both himself and his team-mates. However, unlike recent games, the goal of Clint Bolton lead a charmed life and the back of the net could not be found. Other standouts on the night were Matthew Kemp, who is in career best form, and Nick Ward who seemed to be everywhere and was providing that all important link between defence and attack. Ward has been a real revelation since returning to the squad and his form will be all important in the lead up to the finals campaign.

Whilst I would have much preferred for the Victory to have taken three points from their last match against Wellington Phoenix, the gaining of one point after playing for over half the match with only ten men. That saying, we are certainly going to miss Nick Ward for the upcoming match against ‘bogey’ side, the Mariners.

So in my latest blog for 442, not having much to say as I was pretty pleased with end result and the whole team’s performance, I took a swipe at the SkySports NZ commentary team. Needless to say, my criticism resulted in extremely high number of comments as fans from opposition clubs went head to head with Melbourne fans about various commentators. It all made for exciting reading and also got a good number of hits. Maybe I should be a little more controversial in the future.

Saturday night’s game will certainly go down as one of the most exciting games we have seen so far in the short history of the A-League. And that’s just on the quality of the goals alone with five of the six scored being absolute crackers.

But the game was also the story of how Melbourne’s makeshift central pairing was unable to deal with the combined presence of van Djik and the slippery fish, Henrique. Matthew Kemp is probably one of the best right backs going around but as a central defender he looks a lot less assured.

Merrick’s other gamble of playing Nick Ward as Kemp’s replacement also didn’t work. And much like Fred’s exploitation of Greg Owens in the 2006/07 Grand Final, Henrique was too much of a handful for Henrique and left Kemp exposed too many times for everyone’s liking. From what we saw on Saturday night, Surat Sukha needs to be given a starting spot and a proper central defender is needed to shore up the currently leaky defence.

One person that seemed to be copping a lot from the crowd, was former Wellington Phoenix custodian, Glenn Moss, with the Victory faithful seeming to blame him for all our goals. This is extremely poor form by large sections of the crowd and in my latest blog 442 post I take them to task.

Carlos Hernandez, what else is there to say apart from - “We have been two years for you to score from a free kick!”

Mid-week football is awesome! And it looks like 27,000 odd people agreed with me. And there was even a significant number of Adelaide supporters who made the trip as well. It probably helped that it is still school holidays but its definitely something that the FFA should consider as the competition expands.

To the game itself. I would have to admit that I was pretty nervous going into this one. I can’t remember when I was that nervous watching an A-League game. Maybe the A-League Grand Final? And it looked like my nerves had rubbed off on Adelaide, who looked completely at sea against a rampant Melbourne Victory side early on and in all honesty they played terribly for long periods of the game. Looked to be more interested in making a physical contest of the match rather than play football.

Although despite dominating long periods of play we were still not creating enough clear cut chances with most of shots coming from distance that were either straight at Galekovic or well wide of the mark. It seemed like it was going to be one of those game where we huff and puff but aren’t able to blow down the house of the opposition, who to be honest had most of their men behind the ball. Fortunately for Melbourne and my fellow supporters, who were starting to moan about every missed chance, Ward rose unapposed to put away the winner from a corner.

The goal against Sydney a couple of matches has appeared to have done the world of good - confidence wise - for Nick Ward. He is starting to look more and more like the player that invigorated the team late last season and deservedly picked up a starting spot last night. Its also good to see our set pieces becoming more dangerous, with Celeski, Hernandez and Muscat providing various options. Here’s hoping that Hernandez eventually finds the back of the net with one of his free kicks - he came dangerously close last night. If my memory serves me correctly it was Galekovic’s save save of a Hernandez free kick that lead to the corner for the goal - so not all in vain.

It also seems that Merrick didn’t take too kindly to Thwaite’s decision to go north as the defender went straight from the starting XI to the stands. Or am I reading too much into it? The move also resulted in a clean sheet for the Victory - something that hasn’t occurred for a while.

Next up is a trip to Perth and I wouldn’t be expecting anything less than a point, with a win being perfect. Our recent form in the west hasn’t been that great so the nerves may be again on edge.

Only days into the beginning of the silly season, Melbourne has made its first signing with the announcement today that Tom Pondeljak has signed with the Victory for the next two years. Pondeljak, a former Melbourne Knights player, returns to his home town to probably finish off his long career. His signing coincides with the excellent news that Nick Ward has also agreed to a one year extension on his previous six month contract. My only concern is that of recent times, Pondeljak has been a tad injury prone, but if he stays fit he should provide great support for a midfield that already contains the aforementioned Ward, Hernandez, Celeski and possibly Patafta.

In other firsts for the week, my indoor soccer team won its first ever game; I had my first crack at football journalism with a match report for a Victorian Premier League match; I bought tickets to see the Victory in its first Asian Chamionps League campaign; and not for the first time this season an A-League match was surrounded in controversy as the Newcastle Jets took out their first A-League championship. The events of Sunday have been already been well covered here, here, here and here, so there is no need for me to add my bit at this late stage.

Last night both myself and my fellow supporters finally got to see the Melbourne Victory play football the way we had wanted them to play all season. Well, expect for me couple of people who were sitting to my front and rear who find reason to criticise at every opportunity. Goals to Hernandez, Ward and Patafta saw the Victory record a 3-0 win over the Wellington Phoenix. For the first time since mid-October the Victory theme song rang out around the Telstra Dome. The win kept us in finals contention for at least another 24 hours until unfortunately the Jets beat the Mariners and ended our chances.

Last night I also got my wish from last week in seeing both Ward and Hernandez start on the pitch together, although Carlos was playing in a much more forward role due to the absences of Allsopp through a virus. The combination worked well and complimented each other effectively. This combination bodes well for our ACL campaign.

Special mention should go to Sebastian Ryall, who at only 18 years of age is making a name for himself in the Victory defence. Time and time again he made crucial tackles and never looked panicked. As the weeks go by he is looking more and more comfortable on the ball. Playing in a backline that has both Muscat and Vargas in it has probably helped his development.

Kaz Patafta has been one of my favourites for the year almost to the point of stalking and it looks like my fellow supporters are also becoming fans as a huge roar erupted around the stadium when he came on as substitute in the 75th minute. He responded in kind with his first goal for the club and our third for the night, a well taken goal from a tight angle after Thompson scuffed a shot. I don’t think I would get any disagreement by saying that he has been under utilised throughout the season and Merrick and his coaching staff have to take some blame for that. Its unlikely that he will stay beyond his loan period but I will probably maintain my “stalking” although from a much greater distance. It looks like our good run of form came to nothing and we only have ourselves to blame, our style of football for the majority of the season has been poor and we didn’t really deserve a position in the finals. I am off to Sydney next week for our final game of the season and my first away game where I sit/stand in the “away” end. I am looking forward to it even though there is nothing to play for. But I hope the boys put one last final effort and stop those boys in baby blue from taking out the minor premiership.

Bottom image “borrowed” from The Age.