Another unfortunate loss for Melbourne, and yet, this time the positives are plentiful. By all accounts, Melbourne put on a master display, led by none other than Archie Thompson. Assisted by a classy performance from Hernandez, he pressed and pressed and continually showed up the lacking Mariners defence.
The early red card was undoubtedly deserved, although it could just as easily have gone the other way if the timing had been different - both players committed equally to that challenge.
What followed for the next 60 minutes though was really Melbourne’s best performance of the season. The players were up for it and seemed to have an extra man rather than a man less. Vasilevski replaced Leandro Love early as a result of Keenan’s red card and went on to perform brilliantly for the team, on more than one occasion creating dangerous opportunities with pin-point perfect passes. He’s definitely made a case for future inclusions in the squad. More magnificent passing was provided by Hernandez who ripped the Mariners defense to shreds with clever balls to repeatedly find Archie free in space. He has certainly lifted his game now and I’m sure we have not seen the end of his influence on the game. His goal in the 77th minute looked like it would be the icing on the cake for a fantastic performance. But alas.
Melbourne didn’t settle back into all-out defensive mode well enough it seemed and the Central Coast finally awakened to what was happening to them. When a goal went their way 3 minutes later, they had gained the momentum. And with an extra man to help them see the match out, Melbourne was hardly in with a chance any more. A final killer goal and an unfortunate interaction between Vargas and Petrovski saw the match end in depressing fashion. What is particularly unfortunate is the loss of another two defenders to suspension. If Pantelidis’ suspension is anything to go by, we could be looking at a lengthy ban for Vargas as well - certainly not a player we would be keen to lose from the ranks for too long. Ryall should be back next week at least (Correction: Ryall will still be away.. grrr) and Pace didn’t look out of place in the line-up either. Who will join them and Kemp at the back though? Will Milicevic be fit in time? We wait and wonder.
But we really shouldn’t be overly gloomy about this match. The performance was excellent and should be an encouragement for the rest of the season. The football tonight was worthy of champions and that is precisely what we expect of the Victory.
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3 responses so far ↓
1 Eric // Nov 5, 2007 at 10:42 am
A depressing loss, but that was probably the first time this season that I came away from the game feeling like this was a Melbourne Victory worth being proud of. That was an incredible performance.
Hernandez was the stand-out player for me, but the entire team played superbly. Broxham. Muscat. Thompson. And I agree with Peter, Vasilevski had a great game, considering it’s only his second appearance of the season.
And new boy Steven Pace proved once again that signing local talent is well worth it. Melbourne had their new player (Pace) and Central Coast had theirs (Aloisi), but Melbourne looked like the team on fire… Go figure…
2 David // Nov 5, 2007 at 1:05 pm
I was saying before the end of the match yesterday what a spirited fight it was from the lads, and how I’d always fancied Melbourne nicking it with a late goal to maintain the weekend’s pattern of one-nil away wins in the other matches. How cruel were those last five minutes?..
Have to agree with you guys here, great performance - crap result. We were sitting there saying how this was more like the Melbourne of last year, and how you just had the feeling they’d score. Best all-round performance in ages.
In the good box I’ve put two sublime passes from Carlos Hernandez, the first one put Archie clean through on goal, now that was a defence splitting pass. Steven Pace had a great debut and looked comfortable, and it was good to see Daniel Vasilevski play more than a cameo at the end and deliver a solid performance.
In the bad box I think Keenan got committed to his rash tackle by an underhit pass, and in his zeal to retain possession, he has been late and paid the price. It was hard to see what Roddy Vargas did to warrant his dismissal but like Panta, he was provoked, so maybe retaliation has become the new evil to be stamped out of the game, and he’ll be banned the extra games as well.
These suspensions are annoying but if Muscat stays in defense with Pace and Brebner returns to midfield with Broxham, there should be enough steel to match Sydney next week, which is already looking to be an important game in terms of being a finals contender.
I get the feeling we won’t be seeing Ljubo again, but it’ll be interesting to see who lines up against Sydney next week.
3 Kallie // Nov 5, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Having heard the result before seeing the game, i was actually not too upset about the result- that was until i saw how it all unfolded. Having seen the game now, i’m totally gutted because we ripped apart the Central Coast and showed them up, they were just too lucky (it does help when you are a player up). I do have a feeling that Sydney may underestimate Victory (because we are so depleated in defence) but i really d0 think we will win next week- Sydney are not a big event team (although they would claim otherwise) not to mention the momentum will be with Melbourne (plus the crowd). Reason enough not to underestimate the Victory. Sure it would help to have Vargas but i think big Kev will be put back into defence as well as Vasilevski and Pace and does help that Brebner will be back. (All good and well provided that the Refs also play fair & we dont get a repeat of the Newcastle game!)
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