I remember a game at Telstra Dome earlier this season as an overweight mid-40s bloke with a packet of chips shouted: “Lay off the KFC, Carlos!”
At the time, it was a common sentiment, obviously fed by early reports in the media that Carlos Hernandez, arguably the Melbourne Victory’s most exciting new prospect, was overweight when he arrived from the Costa Rica. Nevermind the fact that he was one of Costa Rica’s leading scorers in the build-up to the World Cup in Germany. Nevermind that he could pull off long-range strikes like this. Such feats are easily forgotten when you can reduce a player down to one simple phrase: “He’s fat.”
I argued at the time that Hernandez had become a scapegoat, much like Daniel Allsopp was deemed the source of all Melbourne’s troubles in the first season. To be sure, Hernandez was taking time to settle in. But I believed that he would settle in – and when he did, the critics would be silenced.
And they were:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkYMphARocg[/youtube]
Over the past several weeks, Hernandez has moved beyond the “flashes of brilliance” he tantalised us with in the early rounds. His pace has picked up, though he’s still nowhere near being the fastest kid on the field. He has started to combine dangerously with Allsopp and Thompson. In short, his performances have been solid and far more indicative of the top-class footballer we were hoping for when Melbourne first signed him.
After the Newcastle game, I commented that Melbourne failed to convert possession into solid attacking play. In my opinion, we desperately struggled to penetrate a resolute Newcastle who were happy to sit back and “grind out” the result.
Part of the problem seems to lie in the Melbourne midfield, which consists of three defensive players: Kevin Muscat, Grant Brebner and Leigh Broxham. It’s not hard to see why a player like Hernandez is so critical to Melbourne’s fortunes. He is one of our key playmakers. And even though he wasn’t able to help Melbourne to a goal on Friday night, he is most certainly starting to come into his own. Something tells me the best is yet to come.
Read more about Carlos Hernandez:
- Carlos Hernandez on Wikipedia
- Hernandez profile on Melbourne Victory website
2 comments ↓
Early on, I was one of the Hernandez skeptics too!… I knew that it would take him time to adjust, it’s only natural, but all the razzle dazzle of the press and all those youTube videos being flung around put big expectations on the guy before he’d even stepped foot into the country. All you had to do was look at pictures of him to know that he’d have to lose a few ‘Kenny G’s’ before being capable of competing in the A-League; that’s why Merrick has introduced him sporadically into the starting line-up. Now that his fitness is improving, I think that he’ll be able to offer the team more attacking options and will also be creating more for team up front. I agree that his best is yet to come, let’s just hope that the crowds don’t right him or the team off just yet, even though the media are already starting to turn on them.
the way that carlos plays for us he should get costa rican captain.
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