Victory in Melbourne 

After last week’s Australia Day match against Sydney FC I had intended to ride my bike home but unfortunately on my way to the game my back tyre had gone completely flat so instead of riding home I had to walk my bike to Flinders Street Station in order to get home. Whilst the same thought may have occurred if I had been in the saddle but as I pushed my bike alongside the Yarra River with thousands of other fans I came to the conclusion that it was time to call it quits on Melbourne Victory’s season.

Whilst many would think that with nine matches to go in the season that this a big call but let me clarify what calling it quits means for me. After experiencing another match where the team again threw away a lead I decided that after all the troubles that this season has entailed that I have decided withdraw my emotional attachment from the team for the rest of the season. I will still go to games and still watch them when they play interstate but it will be more from the stand point of a supportive observer rather than a full-on fan with the result being of no consequence. This is mainly due to the fact that I believe nothing will come of this season - a season at its beginning promised so much but in the end won’t probably even deliver a finals appearance.

However, it must be added that this role of a supportive observer is null and void for the upcoming Melbourne Derby.

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.

After what seemed like an interminably long off-season the A-League finally got back underway last weekend as the Victory took on Sydney FC in what seems to be some sort of start of season tradition. And like many before them it ended in a draw but as far as 0-0 draws go it was pretty exciting with the respective goalkeepers stealing the limelight from Harry Kewell and Brett Emerton, who were making their A-League debuts.

From a Melbourne Victory point of view there were a few fresh faces making their debuts, none so more than new manager/coach Mehmet Durakovic, who had his first official game in charge and whilst it wasn’t a perfect performance there was some good pointers that if worked on could make for an exciting year. With the absence of Carlos Hernandez due to international duty, Durakovic set the midfield up with two holding midfielders in the form of Billy Celeski and Grant Brebner with Harry Kewell playing a roaming role behind Danny Allsopp with Archie Thompson and debutant Marco Rojas providing the width and pace. At the back were Vargas and Leijer centrally with another debutant Fabio and Matthew Foschini playing as full backs.

Without Hernandez absent it was a somewhat lopsided formation and in many respects the midfield lacked a bit of focus as the gap between Brebner and Celeski and the front three gave Sydney a little too much space, something which they exploited early on and it was only some heroics from new goalkeeper Ante Čović that kept Sydney FC from scoring early on. He further improved on his performance with that penalty save from Brett Emerton and one can see Tando Velaphi struggling to return to the starting XI once he returns from injury.

All three starting debutantes made good debuts with the most high profile, Harry Kewell having one of the best opportunities to break the deadlock midway through the first half. Despite having gone almost five months without competitive football, Kewell looked very much at home in free roaming role and some of his combinations with Archie Thompson were a sight to behold. One criticism that could be levelled at Kewell is that at times he seemed a little desperate to get on the scoresheet, particularly as the deadlock dragged on. When Hernandez returns next week against Adelaide week it will be interesting to see how Durakovic can fit both into the team, especially on the road.

Marco Rojas, the young New Zealander formerly of Wellington Phoenix, showed plenty of signs that he will be a useful addition this season providing the width that Melbourne Victory fans always seemed so much to crave during the reign of Ernie Merrick. What was especially pleasing was that at the end of some pulsating runs he was able to put in some quality final balls with ones for Kewell and Allsopp that forced great saves from Sydney goalkeeper, Liam Reddy.

Fabio, the latest in a string of Brazilians to play for the Victory, showed that he could be a good acquisition at full back despite giving away the penalty through a somewhat clumsy challenge on Mark Bridge. What caught the eye was his work rate providing an attacking outlet but also making sure to get back in defence and making a number of crucial interceptions. Both Jean-Carlos Solorzano and Isaka Cernak also saw pitch time but it was limited so a proper assessment would be a little unfair.

Next up is Adelaide in Adelaide and after our run of ten consecutive wins, the South Australians have won the last two with the last one coming in the final round last season. Adelaide will be coming off a poor performance against Perth Glory and will be looking to turn it around in front of their home fans. Like many such matches between the two teams it should be a cracker.

If you had asked a lot of Melbourne Victory fans going into Saturday night’s match against Sydney FC whether or not they would have been happy with a draw many would have said yes. With six first team regulars absent this game was always going to be a struggle for the visitors. And for a while there it looked like we would snatch all three points until Juho Makela popped up in stoppage time to deny us the win. Fortunately for the Victory teams around us looking to gain the final two finals positions didn’t manage to gain on us so in the end it wasn’t too bad. What it does highlight is a worrying trend this season of late goals conceded.

In light of this I decided to a bit of lightweight research to see how many points that all these late goals have cost Melbourne Victory over the course of the season using the proviso of goals conceded in the last fifteen minutes of a match. As you can see below I found seven instances where a goal has been conceded in the last fifteen minutes of a game.

Week 1
Opponent: SydneyFC
Goal conceded: 85’
Final Result: D3-3

Week 3
Opponent: North Queensland
Goal conceded: 82’
Final Result: D2-2

Week 11
Opponent: Brisbane
Goal conceded: 77’
Final Result: L2-1

Week 14
Opponent: Central Coast
Goal conceded: 78’
Final Result: D2-2

Week 16
Opponent: Wellington
Goal conceded: 84’
Final Result: D2-2

Week 17
Opponent: Brisbane
Goal conceded: 90’+3
Final Result: D3-3

Week 22
Opponent: Adelaide
Goal conceded: 77’
Final Result: L4-1

Week 23
Opponent: SydneyFC
Goal conceded: 90’+1
Final Result: D1-1

You can discount the loss against Adelaide as the result was already beyond doubt when the goal was scored so it brings the total down to six. Five of those six have resulted in draws when a win was within our grasp correlating to a potential ten points lost. If those wins had been taken we would worrying about a top two position rather than whether we will be around come finals time.

So what do we put this late game fadeout down to? Could it be an aging defence? Two of central defenders are the wrong side of thirty as is our goalkeeper so that could be a factor. I’m not actually sure what it is to be honest as traditionally the Victory have been a team that always finishes a match strongly. Recent wins over Central Coast and Newcastle being a case in point. Anyway here’s hoping that it is a trend that comes to a quick and sudden end especially with finals fast approaching.

For more thoughts on the game feel free to read my latest blog for Australian FourFourTwo.

In the aftermath of the Victory’s dramatic three-all draw with Sydney FC the thing that struck me was how Ernie Merrick had sent out his team without a recognised striker and still managed to score three goals. For me, it all came down to the formation that he sent out on the night and that is the subject of my latest blog for FourFourTwo. For an alternative view on the game check out this excellent summation by The Football Tragic.

Welcome to Victory In Melbourne’s minute by minute analysis of Melbourne Victory’s first match of its 2010/11 A-League campaign against SydneyFC. All the action kickoffs at 8:00pm AEST and we will be keeping you up-to-date with all that happens on the pitch.

Note: This page does not automatically update so you are going have to keep hitting that refresh button like mad to keep abreast of what’s going on.

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:

1) By emailing neiljzimmerman@gmail.com
2) Or tweeting Victory In Melbourne
3) Or leave a comment below

7:18pm: Aren’t we all a little sick of seeing Melbourne Victory play Sydney FC with this being the fifth time in a row that the two teams have met each other. Without a recognised striker after Kruse was a late omission (not that you could really class him as a striker in all honesty) it will be interesting to see how Ernie Merrick sets out the team.

7:44pm: Today is Kevin Muscat’s 37th birthday and he’ll sure to be wishing to expunge the memories of the last time that these two met.

Victory staring XI: Petkovic (gk), Muscat (c), Dugandzic, Sukha, Broxham, Brebner, Vargas, Pondeljak, Hernandez, Berger, Leijer

The other team: Reddy(gk), Ryall, Keller, Foxe, Musialik, Carle, Brosque, McFlynn(c), Bridge, Jamieson, Byun

0 min: And we’re off. Oh great, we have Matthew Breeze in charge which should make things interesting.

4 mins: After a fairly cagey opening on what looks like a pretty poor surface (a combination of the weather and the egg-ball code one would think) Hayden Fox heads over the crossbar from a Scott Jamieson cross. Melbourne will surely need to defend better at set pieces than they did at that one. Seeing that Melbourne is playing without a recognised striker (surely there is someone on the youth team) Hernandez, Pondeljak and Dugandzic are playing as a front three. Don’t really like this tactic as it robs Melbourne of Hernandez’s creativity in the midfield.

8 mins: Byun still probably thinking about that penalty last season dwells on the ball too long and allows Dugandzic to steal and force him to concede a corner. It appears that Vargas’ shaved head has confused the Sydney FC supporters (which doesn’t take much) as they booed his hopeful long ball thinking that it was Muscat who had hit the long ball.

14 mins: Does the start of this season remind you much of the Victory’s first season. Back in that season they started their campaign away to Sydney and followed that with a first home game against Perth Glory at Olympic Park. Fast forward to this season and Melbourne is playing away to Sydney and following that up with their first home game at the new AAMI Park. Back to more footballing matters, Dugandzic is creating a heap of problems for the Sydney defence. On two occasions he has made it to the byline and pulled the ball back. Unfortunately for the Victory, no one has been there to finish off his good work. Melbourne looking much more composed than their opposition at the moment.

20 mins: An update for Jesse Fink and all those other Nick Carle lovers out there. The player of Uruguayan and Chilean descent and that ill-fated rabone has been rarely sighted so far apart from a decent cross that again found Hayden Foxe unmarked. Once again the redhead defender put it wide of the mark.

30 mins: Not much to report in the last ten minutes or so with much of the play taking place in the middle  of the park. Neither team is really imposing themselves on this one.

35 mins: Petkovic in his first official game in Victory colours is quickly off his line to deny the serial diver as the ball is delightfully chipped into his path. And who says I can’t pay those boys in baby blue a compliment. Moments later, Carle picks up the first yellow for the game. Good to see that his time in England hasn’t improved his tackling at all.

36 mins: Goal. A horrendous error from the birthday boy sees Sydney pinch a goal as the Melbourne Victory defender has pocket picked by Bridge only metres out from goal in a monumental brain fade. It’s a simple finish from Brosque to put the Sydneysiders a goal up. Sydney fans obviously loving the irony of the moment but I’m not.

45 mins: And there goes the half time whistle. Considering that Melbourne a playing without a traditional striker it was all going rather well until that Muscat cock up which gifted Sydney a goal. With Celeski, Ward and Angulo on the bench I really can’t see Merrick taking a backward but we really need that striker Geoff Lord was talking about earlier this week.

46 mins: Second half kicks off with Melbourne needing to create some goal scoring chances to put the pressure on their baby blue opponents. No changes at the half for either team. It will be interesting to see what the crowd figure will be tonight considering the other codes that have been in action in Sydney today. Via the television coverage it’s pretty difficult to really to ascertain what the crowd is.

53 mins: Goal. Another defensive error and another goal for Sydney. This time it’s Berger’s failure to clear with a header that allows McFlynn to loop his own header over a despairing Petkovic. During the Sydney celebrations, Billy Celeski comes on for Surat Sukha. It’s good to see him back.

58 mins: That is an extremely soft yellow card to Vargas as he tangles with Alex Brosque, with the serial diver making the most of the slightest of contact from the Victory defender. Resulting free kick crashes into the wall.

61 mins: I really wish Simon Hill would stop referring to this match as ‘The Big Blue’. It is rather a lame name for a clash that will be soon be demoted to our second spot in terms of hated rivals. Is there even the need for a name for a clash between teams from two different cities. It’s not like Manchester and Liverpool have a name for their matches.

65 mins: GOOAAALLLLLL!!!!!! Broxham pulls one back for the Victory with a clumsy looking finish as headed the ball onto his foot and into the goal. Coincidentall

67 mins: GOAAALLLLLL!!! Who says we a striker as Dugandzic brings the Victory back on level terms as he gets on the end of a Pondeljak cross to shut The Cove right up. Shortly after Muscat almost contrives to gift Sydney another goal but Bridge somehow manages to find the knees of Petkovic with the goal at his mercy. The game certainly has liven up as Pondeljak is winding back the clock and exposing Byun’s lack of defensive accountability.

71 mins: In all that excitement I forgot to mention the crowd of 12,106 which is not much better than the crowd pulled by that other Melbourne team on a Thursday.

73 mins: GOAAALLLLL!!!! Celeski puts Melbourne ahead with an easy tap-in after some brilliant lead up play from Mate Dugandzic who in combination with Pondeljak have turned this game on its head. I thought for a moment there that the young winger had wasted the opportunity but showed brilliant composure to take out three defenders and set up Celeski. Sydney looking extremely shellshocked by this turn of events.

79 mins: The mood in this house has just gone up a notch. It wasn’t looking that good fifteen minutes ago but now with a little over ten minutes to go we now need the boys to hold onto the game. Not long after Melbourne’s third goal a voice could be heard from the stands directed at Hayden Foxe questioning his defensive abilities: “Thats what you get paid for!”

87 mins: I lose coverage for a minute or two there as somehow Sydney pulls a goal back. Not sure exactly what happened there apart from Shannon Cole grabbing the equaliser possible due to a Petkovic error.

90 mins: Three minutes of stoppage time coincides with the irony of Brosque complaining about Broxham going rather too easily under a challenge. Mr Pot meet Mr Kettle.

90+3 mins: Sydney almost grab a late winner as Vargas clears a goal bound effort from the goal line and then Brebner uses his posterior to deny Carle a winning goal on his Sydney debut.

90+4 mins: And thus it ends 3-3 in what was a scintillating second half. Muscat absolutely fuming after the match as he questions the free kick that resulted in Sydney’s third goal. My apologies to Michael Petkovic for the third goal as it was a well taken free kick rather than a ‘keeping error. I know a tipped a draw for this one and would have been happy with that result at the start of the game but when we were 3-2 up a win against all odds would have been great.

Football Federation Australia today released the fixture for the 2010/11 season and surprise, surprise Melbourne Victory play Sydney FC in the first round. This will be the fifth time in a row that Melbourne will have played Sydney and quite frankly I’m getting a little sick of the sight of them. I know that the powers that be always like to have the two teams who have played off for the title play the first game of the season but considering that we played each other four times in the space of six weeks at the end of last season surely warrants a change. I would have much preferred to see a Melbourne derby to start off the season. Other interesting points to note from the new fixture are:

• Melbourne’s first game at AAMI Park will be against Perth Glory, who coincidentally were the first team to play the Victory at Olympic Park in the first season;
• The first Melbourne derby takes place on October 2, 2010 with Melbourne Heart being the home team. I wonder how the seating arrangements will be for that one;
• Melbourne Victory don’t get a “weekend break” until Round 16, whilst both Newcastle Jets and Central Coast Mariners get two in that time;
• The second Melbourne derby of the season unfortunately takes place on the weekend of my girlfriend’s birthday. Again it is a Melbourne Heart home game;
• Melbourne plays four midweek games against Wellington Phoenix, the Central Coast Mariners and the Newcastle Jets with only one of them being an away game (Wellington);
• The third Melbourne derby will be played at Etihad Stadium. Are they forgetting that for the first two derbies Victory supporters will also be attending?
• Last game of the season is against Adelaide United at the Adelaide Oval. Pencil in three points for that one.

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.

Next Sunday looms as one of the biggest games in the very short history of the A-League as Melbourne and Sydney battle it out for the much coveted Premier’s Plate and with it automatic qualification for the ACL.

For Melbourne, who are guaranteed a top two finish and the double chance will be looking to create history and become the first team to win back-to-back premierships. It will be interesting to see how the Victory back up against Sydney, especially in the continued absence of both Thompson and Muscat. Whilst it didn’t seem to effect the team against the Fury, Sydney is definitely a step up in class. Here’s hoping we get a repeat performance from Carlos Hernandez, who was at his brilliant best against the Fury.

It was also good to see Adrian Leijer step up to the plate as he took the captain’s armband for the first time. It suited him and you would have to say he is a frontrunner for the role once Kevin Muscat hangs up his boots.

Digressing a little, last week was certainly a topsy-turvy one and this was my topic of discussion in my latest 442 blog, which you can read here. You will also notice that my blog for 442 as I decided to go with ‘V is for Victory’.

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.