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.
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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:
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.
The combination of Melbourne’s great play and closeness of the fans created a heady mix that surely will have fans wanting more. It will be interesting to see if the stadium management will again bring the seats in again for our next home game. Being that the next home game is against Sydney surely you would want that atmosphere again.
The North/South/East/West chant brought memories of our last every home game at Olympic Park against the now defunct New Zealand Knights. Coincidentally it was the game that wrapped at the premiership for that season.
Now can we have that every week? That is the quality football combined with the increased atmosphere. I can only hope so.
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.
It was probably no coincidence that Melbourne’s best home performance of the season came in front of its biggest home crowd. The atmosphere within the stadium was electric and it almost seemed that there was more than the twenty or so thousand that was listed as the official crowd figure. If that translate to the new rectangular stadium then it will truly be an intimidating venue. In the Southern Terrace, where I now spend most of my match time, was in full voice almost from the kick-off. Also the Aida chant that went almost for half an hour from the start of the second half was truly impressive. Others tried to drown it out but it was unstoppable.
As for the game against Brisbane Roar itself, my thoughts can be found in my latest blog for 442 and also my comments on this post by John at A Seat At The A-League. But I must say it was great to finally hear our club song ring out around the ground after a home win and with Sydney winning yesterday it sets up a tantalising match against the arch-enemy on Friday night. It should also see a marked jump in the home attendance with some commentators saying 40k is a distinct possibility. I think that it is unlikely and personally I would love a crowd around the 30k mark.
I also managed to get to the stadium early and catch the last half of the Victory women’s W-League opening match against Perth Glory, the only team I seem to see Melbourne play. Good to see the girls get off to a winning start with a 2-0 victory and was pretty impressed with the style of play and cohesion. Also singing the praises of the W-League is Hamish over at Football Down Under and Beyond. Will definitely try and catch more of their games and would like to see them play the curtain raiser more often.
The Melbourne Victory’s Northern Terrace certainly set the tone for last night’s clash against Sydney in what was one very important match for the Victory. Whilst not condoning the use of flares, it certainly looked impressive and was very hellish indeed. The boys certainly responded with a great come from behind win. For a more detailed analysis, you will have to read my latest au.fourfourtwo.com blog post.
The other main talking point for the night was certainly the clash between Danny Allsopp and John Kosmina. For those who haven’t seen it, here it is. Mike Cockerill’s butchering-of-the-english-language response is hilarious.
Allsopp, who has added an aggressive streak to his game of late, set the tone for the rest of his team mates with an aggressive attack both on and off the ball and they duly responded.
