Victory in Melbourne 

Back in Melbourne Victory’s first season I watched them play four consecutive matches at home and not score a single goal. Last Sunday’s match was worse than that. I have watched Melbourne Victory lose a penalty shootout in a Grand Final. The feeling after last Sunday’s match was worse than that. Last year I watched Melbourne Victory lose the first ever Melbourne derby. Last Sunday’s result was worse than that.

Never have I seen a Melbourne Victory side look so disjointed as it did against Perth Glory. Two weeks ago with nine men against the Brisbane Roar, the Victory showed a spirit not shown in a long, long time. At the time both players and coach labelled the result as a “turning of the corner” and so if we are to continue the driving analogy then Sunday’s effort has to be called a “massive U-turn” that has sent us completely in the wrong direction. It was a result in the end that inevitably cost Francis Awaritefe his job as Director of Football.

The result in many respects flattered the home side with a slightly controversial sending off and a just plain wrong penalty giving the Victory both a man and goal advantage that they didn’t really deserve. When Danny Allsopp made it 2-0 it felt like a hollow lead, although not it seems to the person in the South End who thought it necessary to throw their bourbon and coke into the air, most of which seemed to land on me. Not only was I feeling disheartened about the team’s performance on the pitch but now I also smelt like someone who had just had a big night at the now defunct 21st Century Dance Club.

Even with a two goal advantage it never actually seemed that Melbourne Victory were in the game and when Andrezinho curled in that well-taken free kick it seemed only a matter of time that Perth Glory would eventually grab an equaliser. And with three minutes left in normal time that man Shane Smeltz popped up with the winner after some pretty lax defending left him unmarked at the back post. It was disappointing rather than surprising.

The result left Melbourne Victory in seventh position with only eight points and whilst many have been quick to point out that they are only three points behind second placed Central Coast Mariners it is more the manner in which the team has played so far this season that has many fans calling for the head of coach Mehmet Durakovic with his efforts in the post-match press conference not doing a whole lot to instill any confidence.  It’s not just the team isn’t winning, it’s that it doesn’t actually look like winning.

The season may have already started last week but the good people over at The Elastico have only just around to putting up the second part of my preview for the season. It features my thoughts on the Victory as well as Newcastle, Sydney, Perth and Wellington and you can read it here.

Saturday night at AAMI Park saw two of the worst performances you will ever see on a football field. One was by Gerard Parsons, who quite simply put in one of the worst refereeing performances that has ever been witnessed in the A-League in its short history. His decision to “let the game flow” without consequence resulted in Perth Glory running amok in the Victory midfield without immunity. The other was caused directly by the actions of Parsons, whose decision allowed Jacob Burns (may he never where the Socceroos jersey again) to be at his thuggish best and the fact that he was still on the field at the end of the match was indeed a miracle.

I was going to include a picture of Parsons but he is not listed on the A-League website as one of their referees so I used the nearest likeness I could find.

There is one thing you can say about matches between Melbourne Victory and Perth Glory is that they are never going to end 0-0. They are always full of goals and usually it’s Perth doing the damage, especially on their home turf. So it was good to finally see the Victory take away all three points and break a run of four matches in Perth without a point. Again Carlos Hernandez was the difference, ably supported by Archie Thompson, who probably played his best game of the season. For my thoughts on the game and the fact everyone is concentrating on the “crisis” up north, rather than on the fact that Melbourne and Sydney appear to be slowly taking control of the league, you can read my latest 442 blog.

It’s also that time of the year when I grow some bad facial hair (as you can see above) as part of Movember to help the fight against prostate cancer & men’s depression. Please donate to this worthy cause here.

In my latest blog for 442 I cheekily put at the end that I wished that we could play Adelaide United every week. The main reason being that we can’t seem to lose against them at the moment but one must also note that we have put on probably two of our best performances so far this season when we have played them. The highlight being the performances of Mate Dugandzic and guest player Sutee Suksomkit.

Next week sees the Victory take on Perth Glory, a team against we which struggle, particularly out west. They are coming two losses and will be looking to bounce back. Here’s hoping we can continue our excellent recent form, but who knows in this topsy-turvy league.

On a slightly different note I was also asked recently who would be in my all-time Melbourne Victory starting XI and here it is:

Theoklitos
Kemp - Vargas - Muscat - Leijer
Celeski
Kitzbichler - Hernandez - Fred
Thompson - Allsopp

Let me know what you think?

It was more of the same as Melbourne once again lost on the road to Perth Glory. Expecting the worst I decided to not watch the game live and instead watch Inglourious Basterds instead, choosing instead to watch a replay knowing the result. For my thoughts on the game check out my latest blog for Australian FourFourTwo.

Last week was a big week in football. Well it was for me anyway as I took in all seven days of the Homeless World Cup that was held in Melbourne last week. I think I watched close to seventy games for week in what was a great week of football. Over at the84thminute I have given a daily update on some of the many matches that I had a look it. Also as part of my weekly blog at au.fourfourtwo.com instead of writing something about the Melbourne Victory’s terrible performance against Perth I chose a much more inspiring story about the women of the Homeless World Cup. You can read it here.

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.