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.
The title pretty much says it all and I’m not just talking about the performance against Adelaide. It also applies to their performance against the Wellington Phoenix on the preceding Wednesday as well. Never have I seen the Victory play such ordinary football in consecutive matches.
And the common denominator in both matches was Melbourne’s inability to get control in the all important midfield battle. This meant the defensive was always under constant pressure and the strikers weren’t getting enough of the ball. The Victory always plays well when they get can serious amount of midfield possession but both Adelaide and Wellington didn’t allow this to happen and when they did get possession it was often coughed up too quickly. Chief amongst the culprits was Billy Celeski, who hasn’t looked the player that he was before his knee construction. Whilst he hasn’t suffered the recurring injuries of both Thompson and Kemp, his form has definitely suffered and it would wise for Merrick to give him a couple of weeks break.
That all being said the Victory have certainly missed the presence of both Kruse and Thompson in attack with the combination of Danny Allsopp and Ricardinho yet to hit its straps as one would expect and maybe we as fans are expecting too much. Let’s hope they can both find some form against Sydney this weekend because another loss could spell disaster with teams like Melbourne Heart, Wellington Phoenix and Newcastle Jets all breathing down our neck for a finals position. What was looking like a comfortable finals finish a couple of matches ago has all of a sudden looked a tad precarious. What is of concern is those losses weren’t valiant losses, they were terrible, ugly losses and that more importantly needs to be rectified.
In my last post I stated that I our two matches over the Christmas/New Year period would surely define our season and went as far as to say that two wins would be perfect and the team duly delivered. Those two wins against both Newcastle Jets and Central Coast Mariners made it four wins in a row and seven games unbeaten for the Victory. With a match tonight against the Wellington Phoenix there is every opportunity to make it five in a row.
With Robbie Kruse being absent for the next month with the Socceroos Asian Cup squad and Archie Thompson still out through injury it will be interesting to see if we contain our recent scoring record. The striking responsibilities now lie with Ricardinho and the returning Danny Allsopp, a combination that has yet to see pitch time together and fans will be hoping that they can gel quickly as the Victory look to maintain their recent momentum. It will be key in the team’s charge to a higher ladder position.
With 2010 coming to an end I have taken the opportunity to undertake my annual review in my latest piece for Australian FourFourTwo, which you can read here. Let’s hope 2011 is a better one for Victory fans than the previous one.
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.
After Saturday night’s win against Adelaide I wrote in my latest blog for 442 that it was one down and two to go in what is the most important week of the season. So I guess after last night’s 4-0 demolition of Wellington Phoenix it is now two down and one to go for the Melbourne Victory. You get the picture.
Last night’s standout performance was from new Costa Rican import, Marvin Angulo. After struggling in his opening game against Newcastle (who wouldn’t struggle after three months of not playing football) he has impressed off the bench in his last two matches and earned himself a starting position against the Phoenix. After a somewhat slow start to the game he steadily worked himself into the play and capped off his performance by setting up Archie Thompson for a goal in his 100th match for the Victory.
Whilst occasionally being knocked off the ball a little too easily (although to his credit in most cases he continued to fight for the ball) and his final shot was a little week it surely was a performance that will have opposition teams a little worried in the final stages of the season. Dare I say, it was a performance reminiscent of a certain Brazilian player from Season 2, whose name we dare not mention.
Looking forward now to the final match of this all important week against Gold Coast United where a win will cement our position in the top two. Before getting ahead of myself it must be noted that the team from up north is definitely a step up in calls from both Adelaide and Wellington and should provided for an absorbing contest. Can’t wait for it.
Don’t forget that Victory In Melbourne can now be found on Facebook and you can become a fan. It’s only just started and there is not much to look at, but you can check it out here and more importantly become a fan.
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.
The above photo was taken just after Carlos Hernandez scored his stunning free kick to give Melbourne the early lead against Wellington Phoenix. It was absolute chaos and what followed was the loudest Carlos Hernandez chant that I have ever heard in the South End (which in reality is not saying much as I have only been standing there for three games, but it pretty impressive nonetheless). It also seem to kick our counterparts in the Northern Terrace into action and their chanting could be heard clearly from our vantage point.
However, that was as good as it got for us Melbourne fans as what followed was one of the most insipid performances that I have ever seen from a Victory team. To be dominated so much by an opposition team on our home turf was just plain depressing. It also paints a bleak picture of what the remainder of the season may look like without both Billy Celeski and Danny Allsopp.
The poor performance where that weren’t that many positives made it hard work to write my weekly blog for Australian FourFourTwo, so I got all nostalgic and went to my happy place. You can read it all here.
Coincidentally this is 200th post that I have written for Victory In Melbourne after approximately 850 days in existence. That’s a post every 4.25 days, which is a considerable slowdown considering that my first 100 posts only took 242 days to complete. Maybe now I am just a little more selective about my subject matter.
Tonight’s match against Wellington Phoenix would probably be one of the most important in the club’s history. With the possibility of securing the Premiership Plate and an automatic ACL appearance there is all to play for with goals and a number of them being the key. The fact that Wellington still has a chance of securing their first ever finals berth bodes well for our chances as they will be looking for the win. Melbourne has a good home record against New Zealand teams, having never dropped any points against either the New Zealand Knights or the Phoenix on home turf.
Also look for Allsopp to get on the scoresheet as he has a pretty good scoring record against the Phoenix, both home and away. Another key player will be Carlos Hernandez, who came off the bench to such great effect last week. Will Merrick give him a start this week? I hope so as Melbourne’s midfield looked particularly toothless last week when he wasn’t on the pitch. Hernandez was also the subject matter for my latest 442 blog post, which can be read here.
My tip: Melbourne 3 Wellington 0
Well its the 1st of December, which means the end of Movember and the end of my moustache for this year. Thanks to all those that donated to this great cause. If you haven’ donated its not too late, just visit my mospace page.
It also looks like its the end of Michael Thwaite’s short stint at Melbourne Victory according to theworldgame.com.au, who are reporting that he will be on his way to Gold Coast United next season. Its disappointing news to say the least, considering the hard work by Gary Cole and co. to get him here in the first place. It also makes our defensive stocks very thin on the ground, with rumours abounding that Sebastian Ryall will look to head back to his home state of NSW and what you would think would be the imminent retirement of Kevin Muscat.
As for the performance on the weekend, there is not much I can say because yours truly forgot to check the actual time on the A-League website and just assumed it was on at 7:30pm Melbourne time. A disappointing result and our first ever lost to a New Zealand side. It was a number of strange results for the weekend but by all accounts we didn’t really deserve anything more than a loss.
