The Melbourne Victory is down, but not out. Three points separate them from 3rd and 4th placed Adelaide United and Newcastle Jets. A stretch of wins can and will propel the Victory into serious final contention, with a decent shot at a top 2 position.
Over the past month, Melbourne could have won each of its games – if it had taken its chances. But alas, let’s leave that behind us. As Archie Thompson said on the weekend, Melbourne needs a game with goals – lots of them. Something to build the team’s confidence, especially that of our strikers and attacking midfielders. You can’t help but lament that the Wellington Phoenix aren’t more like their deceased relative, the New Zealand Knights. Games against the Knights always promised lots of goals – most of them ours.
The Phoenix are much stiffer opposition. Like Melbourne, tomorrow night’s game is critical for them. A win against the Victory would keep Wellington thick in the race for the finals.
And they have Felipe back: frankly, Melbourne’s season started going wrong back in round 1 when Felipe came on in the 2nd half and helped the home side to a come-from-behind 2-2 draw.
Wellington coach Ricky Herbert also has Jeremy Christie, Tony Lochhead and Shane Smeltz back from New Zealand’s qualifier against Vanuatu earlier this week. Ross Aloisi is doubtful for the game, due to a back injury.
Ernie Merrick will be happy to have Kevin Muscat back after he missed last week on suspension. Muscat comes in for Steven Pace, who picked up an injury against Queensland. Sebastian Ryall is back from international duty, as is Leigh Broxham, though he only arrived back yesterday.
The Blue and White Brigade promise that they’ll be back in full force, vocally supporting their team for the full 90 minutes. But with the national elections most likely being decided during the game, I wonder what that will do to the crowd figure. Are any of you missing the game for the election? (As an aside, if you’re undecided who to vote for, consider this: Labour has promised $32 million to the development of soccer in Australia).
My (ever hopeful) tip for the game is a 3 – 1 win for the Victory. But frankly, any kind of win will do:)
Your tip?
4 comments ↓
This game is do or die. We must win at home, if we don’t then we don’t deserve to play finals.
what an absolute disgusting display, muscat is an indiot, broxham should not have come on so early…. sack merrick
Instead of clogging up your comment system, I wrote my own blog post about the game
http://www.justjoshin.net/?p=76
[...] game that he had “full confidence” in the team’s ability to reach a top-4 spot. Peter wrote that he expected a decent performance and a 3-1 score line to the Victory. Even I was convinced [...]
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