MVFC Blog

I suggested yesterday that the Victory’s trip to Gwangyang, South Korea was little more than a friendly for both teams, with the Chunnam Dragons holding only the faintest hope of overtaking Gamba Osaka at the top of Group G.

The game reflected precisely how little was at stake, as both Melbourne and Chunnam churned out listless performances. There were stretches of pleasing play, but by the end I felt drained.

Perhaps I would have felt slightly more elated had I seen Tom Pondeljak’s goal. But the beauty of Viewers Choice meant that it took the pub until the 6th minute to figure out how to get the game showing.

Pondeljak’s strike was impressive, but I was also happy to note his excellent positioning behind Danny Allsopp. I remain convinced that long balls are ineffective as a means of attack, but they are all the more ineffective when the striker has no one behind him. Last night, Pondeljak was there to pick up the stray rebound, and he took his opportunity with finesse. Not bad, Tommy.

After the goal, Melbourne sat back and allowed the Dragons to attack. For 40 minutes. Painful stuff. A freakish goal from Ko Ki-Gu, from either a horrible pass or a devilish strike, brought Chunnam back on level terms. They deserved it.

Melbourne redeemed itself in the second half, while the Dragons deflated. Short, constructive passes in the midfield gave us humble spectators something to enjoy watching. Danny Allsopp had two fine chances to give Melbourne the lead, but narrowly missed on both occasions. Carlos Hernandez’ presence in the final 25 minutes gave some cause for optimism, as did Evan Berger’s short stint in the final five minutes (why Berger wasn’t brought on earlier instead of Caceres is beyond me).

In the end, it was a pointless affair for both teams, as Gamba Osaka’s 2-0 win over Chonburi FC ensures that Group G is effectively wrapped up. I hope that when the AFC reviews the Asian Champions League, it makes it possible for 2nd placed teams to progress to the next stage. If that had been the case last night, Melbourne and Chunnam would have had everything to play for. As it stands, the dominance of one team means dreary matches between teams that have nothing to play for.

Meanwhile, Adelaide United beat the Pohang Steelers 1-0 to keep themselves in the lead in their group. In their final match, they meet Changchun Yatai in China. A draw will be enough for them to progress to the quarterfinals.

Ney Fabiano, Chonburi FC’s Brazilian striker, is playing his last game for the the Thai champions tonight. According to the Bangkok Post, Fabiano is moving to Australia.

It was Stephane Baga that made the biggest impression when Melbourne Victory played Chonburi in March, but Fabiano set Chonburi on their way with his first half goal. He’s an instrumental cog in Chonburi’s front third, and if the news is true, the Thai team will miss him.

The obvious question, though, is where in Australia he may be heading. Victory seem to be the most likely contenders, since they have dealt first-hand with the striker. With Archie Thompson injured, Nathan Elasi untested, and Leandro Love left by the wayside, Fabiano may find himself with alongside Danny Allsopp in no time. Perhaps even against Chonburi in two weeks?

Of course, the interest for Fabiano could be coming from anywhere. But I, for one, won’t mind if it’s Melbourne showing him the transfer papers.

Meanwhile, rumours on the MVFC forum are that Scott Chipperfield is in negotiations with the Victory.

Chunnam Dragons vs. Melbourne Victory airs on Foxsports 1 at 8pm tonight (viewers choice).

Gamba Osaka have all but wrapped up Group G of the Asian Champions League with their commanding lead. It would take an incredible dip in form for the J-League side to relinquish its place in the quarterfinals now. A draw against Chonburi FC tonight would be enough.

Which suggests that the other match in Group G, the Melbourne Victory’s away match against the Chunnam Dragons, is little more than a friendly. The Dragons may have a slim mathematical prospect of overtaking Gamba - they must win twice and Gamba must lose twice - their position is little better than the Victory’s, who are out of contention.

All this will make tonight’s match a very different affair to the first time these two sides met. That night, Melbourne grasped their debut in the ACL and delivered an impressive 2-0 win over the Dragons. A promising start. But sadly, that’s all it was.

The Dragons have picked up four points against Chonburi FC, putting them in third place. In their domestic competition, they are languishing among the bottom half of the table, with just two wins from eight.

After our premature elimination from the ACL, Ernie Merrick has the luxury of two meaningless matches (in the ACL), a meaningless friendly (against Juventus) and a moderately meaningless competition (the Pre-Season Cup) in which to prepare his squad for the A-League season 2008-09. A bittersweet luxury, to be sure, but one that he ought to capitalise on by ensuring his team is a well-oiled unit come August 16.

Merrick has promised to throw young Nathan Elasi into the mix, suggesting that Adrian Caceres, already on his way out, will lose his place in the team. Tom Pondeljak made his debut for the Victory two weeks ago, and he is expected to be in the starting 11, as Leigh Broxham misses tonight’s clash due to suspension. Carlos Hernández has recovered from his injury and will come in off the bench to help him regain his fitness. Hopefully, Kaz Patafta and Evan Berger will be given solid game time - especially Berger, who has had little time to prove himself on the field.

My tip: I think we can sneak away with a narrow win: 2-1.

Your tip?

Half-Time Orange is a blogger I respect, but his latest column has found me questioning his sense of perspective. In a piece titled When Did the Socceroos Become so Soft?, he writes about the news that four Socceroos (Lucas Neil, Josh Kennedy, Jacob Burns and Mile Sterjovski) may miss key qualifiers in July because their wives are due to give birth:

“Is something wrong with this picture? Snap out of it, boys!

Back in the early 1990s, Robbie Slater, bless him, got his then wife, Nathalie, to induce early when the impending birth of one of his children threatened to clash with an important match for his French club, Lens.

That’s the Socceroos spirit. None of this whipped, Ted Danson, but-I-need-to-hold-the-rattle-guv crap. And I speak as a father who’s had a kid in post-natal care. Trust me: the kids will be grateful later on in life if their dads sacrificed.”

Let’s keep things in perspective. I love football dearly, but there are certain things which will always take priority. A best friend’s wedding, a death in the family, or a birth of a child - all these are more important to me than any football match.

But I’m not a professional footballer. We are talking about players who, to a varying extent, carry their nation’s World Cup dreams on their shoulders. You could argue they have a national responsibility that trumps their responsibility to their family, wife or children.

What do you think? Should Socceroos miss their babies’ birth for World Cup qualifiers?

Vote in the sidebar and leave your comments below.

Besides bringing out the draw for next season, the FFA also announced a number of changes to how the competition will run. Among them is a change regarding injury replacement players:

“Will be considered on a case by case basis due to ability of NYL (National Youth League) players to be promoted on a weekly basis.

“Salary Level must be commensurate to that of the injured player. Any premium will be included in the Salary Cap.”

SBS - The World Game

I’m glad to see the FFA remove this loophole, which famously allowed the Central Coast Mariners to usher in John Aloisi as an injury replacement outside the salary cap last year.

Meanwhile, Hyundai has announced it will carry on as naming rights sponsor until at least the 2011-2012 season.

Due to the National Youth League, the FFA has also announced that team squad sizes will increase to 30-35, of which 10-12 must be NYL players and 20-23 will be Roster players.

To help teams with recruitment, the registration window has shifted to mirror the European transfer window, so it will run from June 1 to August 31.

And finally, the Grand Final date has been moved to a Saturday night.

The FFA has released the draw of the 2008-2009 A-League season, which can be downloaded here.

This time around, the FFA has recognised FIFA dates, although Mike Salter rightly points out that it comes somewhat belated, with the Olyroos’ qualification series behind them.

The Melbourne Victory kicks off with two away games, first against Sydney FC and then in New Zealand against the Phoenix. Five days after the Wellington clash, Melbourne fans get their first home game: a Friday night affair against the Newcastle Jets.

It’s a tough start to the season, but as Michael Lynch pointed out in The Age yesterday, there’s fair compensation at the other end of the season, when Melbourne plays five of its final seven at home.

There is a tough spell in the middle half of the season, when the Victory have five away games and two at home. But Gary Cole is happy about the draw:

“Overall, we are pretty pleased with it,” Victory football operations manager Gary Cole said yesterday. “It’s got a good balance to it. We have got four out of the first seven matches at home, including against Adelaide and the current premiers, so they should attract big crowds. There is a much tougher bit in the middle section of the draw when we play two at home and five away, including the round 13 and 14 double-header against Wellington and Perth.

“That’s going to be tough physically for us, but you have got to go to these places. Every team would like to play home-away, home-away, but that’s just not possible with shared ground use.

“We are pleased to have Adelaide at home and Sydney at home twice. There’s a chance to fill the ground up.”

Meanwhile, the draw for the Pre-Season Cup has also been announced, and it perfectly mirrors the last Pre-Season Cup: once again, the Victory is drawn in a group with Adelaide United, Perth Glory and the Newcastle Jets. None of the games will be played in Victoria, as Melbourne meets Adelaide in Launceston, Perth in Bunbury and Newcastle in Port Macquarie.
Download the draw for the Pre-Season Cup here.

I’ve been away for the past two weeks, on a relaxing holiday up the Great Ocean Road. I tell you what, trying to get the pub in Lorne to play the Melbourne - Osaka match was an ordeal.

“Socca? Are you serious? That’s not a real sport.”

Yahda yahda yahda. In the end, I managed to catch the first 60 minutes of the game before the pub closed up. By then, Melbourne were down 2-0 and looked hopeless. Gamba Osaka controlled the game and the Victory rarely looked threatening. It’s disappointing to see Melbourne crash out of the ACL with two rounds of the group stage left to go, but I have to admit that Gamba Osaka deserve their lead.

While I was gone, here’s some news I missed:

• 2nd Melbourne team may join A-League in 2009-2010 season
• Carlos Hernandez to be ready for Chunnam game?
• FourFourTwo also posted a great round-up of next season’s A-League squads, as they now stand.

ps. Thanks to Peter, who wrote the preview of last week’s game. Too bad his hopeful tip for the game didn’t eventuate!

Following the disappointing result against Gamba Osaka two weeks ago, Melbourne tomorrow has the chance to make amends and keep the dream of Asian Champion League glory alive. With 3 more matches to play, not picking up points in this match would spell the end of the campaign. Even if Melbourne were to win the match, we would remain one point behind Gamba and be reliant on other results to see us through.

Still no Archie Thompson or Carlos Hernandez in the squad (although there is talk that Archie could be back sooner rather than later), but we may finally see a match debut for new recruit Tom Pondeljak. Making way for him is Daniel Vasilevski, who has picked up an injury.

Merrick has also flagged some changes up front and in the midfield, with Nick Ward likely dropping back into a more central midfield role, replacing Steven Pace, who failed to impress in the previous match. The question then is, who will fill the void in the attacking midfield? An interesting possibility is Leandro Love. Merrick now appears to believe he would be more suited to a hard-working midfield role; “He’s physically very strong, he’s fast, he’s a good tackler and he’s good in the air. An attacking midfielder would, I think, be a more suitable position for him”. I can see how this mightn’t be a bad idea. Although Love has yet to score a goal for us, he has always worked hard, dropping back to provide extra cover when needed. I also wonder if the less physical nature of the ACL would work better for Leandro.

The other option for that spot is of course fan-favourite Kaz Patafta and this is certainly an option I am fond of. Even so, I suspect Merrick will give both players a fairly even amount of playing time. Who gets the starting spot remains to be seen.

On the Osaka side, an injury cloud hangs over first-choice keeper Yosuke Fujigaya. The stand-in goalkeeper, 34 year-old Naoki Matsuyo, came off the bench in the last J-League match when Fujigaya hurt a shoulder and could very well be the primary shot-stopper in this match.

With little to lose and plenty to prove, Melbourne can be expected to come out all guns blazing in this match. Let’s hope they don’t run out of steam in the final stages like they did a fortnight ago.

Ever hopeful, I’m predicting a 1-2 result in favour of the Victory.

The match screens at 10:00* 8:00 PM on Fox Sports 3 (Viewer’s Choice)

*darn Fox Sports website got me confused. Hope no one’s based their evening on this. The match should still screen again at 10 is my understanding.

Juventus will be gracing Melbourne with a guest appearance at the Telstra Dome in May, according to The Age. The Italian club is making the rounds of the Asia-Pacific region, and is expected to play against the Victory on May 30.

The Age is reporting that the Victory are pursuing one José Luis López, a Costa Rican defensive midfielder currently playing for Deportivo Saprissa. But Gary Cole and Ernie Merrick won’t reveal any details:

“We are looking to get the best combination possible of a striker and midfielder for Melbourne Victory next season … We need a holding midfielder.”

This Spanish site had the news, but the item appears to have been removed (anyone that can find it, post the link in the comments). According to that, “Pupy” López is expected to move to Melbourne in June on a one-year lone, with the possibility of turning into a longer contract.

Check out his profile on Wikipedia.