Another “must win” match, ending in another seemingly inevitable draw. Although, after being behind most of the match, the draw ended up seeming like another lucky escape. How many draws have we had like that this season? If only a few of those could have been wins, we’d be in a much better situation.
Sweeping changes were made to the line-up, most notably introducing Patafta into the starting 11, much to the delight of the fans. Muscat moved into defence, Ryall joined him and Vasilevski moved into midfield alongside Caceres, Broxham and Patafta. For me, this is a much more useful position for Vasilevski, whose crosses into the box have created some of the more promising chances that Melbourne has had. Hernandez took up a more attacking position, alongside Archie of course. Brebner and Keenan had to take make way for the new blood and took their places on the bench.
The new line-up didn’t disappoint either, moving the ball around with much more purpose. Several dangerous chances eventuated, with Archie missing narrowly on several occasions and Hernandez just barely not connecting with a brilliant cross into the penalty area from Patafta. It was one of the season’s most attractive performances from the Victory.
Melbourne conceded an unfortunate goal mostly against the run of play in the first twenty minutes, Agostino clearly offside to everyone but the linesman. Agostino himself seemed surprised the goal was allowed. Sometimes luck is against you, sometimes it is for you, as it was when Archie’s handball in the penalty area was also overlooked. So perhaps we can count that as even.
After Agostino doubled Adelaide’s lead early in the second half, the game seemed destined to end in another nightmare result.
When the Victory was awarded a penalty in the last 20 minutes of the match, hope started to rise. I genuinely felt that Melbourne could still win this game with with the football they were playing. Muscat slotted the penalty home neatly, leaving a one goal deficit. When Alagich headed the ball into his own net in stoppage time, the crowd erupted in one of the more joyous scenes seen at the Dome all season. With a mere two minutes left, the Victory wanted more. Players swarmed forward, causing great excitement in the dying moments. Unfortunately it was too late and a draw was all we could settle for.
The draw has kept Melbourne ahead of Wellington by a point and within 5 points of 4th placed Newcastle. Melbourne would have to find a superb winning streak to salvage the season. Is it too late? Next week Nick Ward is likely to make his start for the team. I wonder who will make way.
9 comments ↓
I agree that this was one of the season’s most attractive performances from the Victory but I don’t think it was the only one, the problem is that they can’t find the goal, even in this match Adelaide helped them and scored one goal for them.
Obviously it was quite an experimental line-up, but it certainly worked – especially in the first half. If only one of those half-dozen near-misses had been on target…
A draw doesn’t really do a whole lot for our chances of making the finals, but at least it was an encouraging performance. If we play with that level of urgency in the Asian Champions League, I definitely think we can make it past the group stage.
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I strongly believe that we would have won the game, had Keenan started in place of Kemp.
Kemp had a few opportunities in space, but the muppet has absolutely no talent and squandered them. The lucky volley of his floored everyone in the stadium – he’ll never get that close again.
Merrick will drop Patafta, even though he created 5 amazing chances. Eerily, he reminded me of Fred.
He wont dare drop Kaz after that performance. Vasilevski impressed me and proved to me he deserves a start which I doubted at first. Even though Carlos is my favourite player I can’t help wondering if Alsopp would have finished those chances. The style of play suited Alsopp especially with vas and caceras getting in behind the defence. That was a much better midfield without Brebner. I left the ground somewhat content even though we didn’t get the points. As long as we keep improving and build momentum, even if we miss finals we will be ready for an in-form assault on the Asian teams.
Merrick will drop Patafta you’ll see, agree with Josh that he reminded of Fred. All(crap)sopp will come back in as well as Brebner if they’re fit and we’ll go back to the usual slow play. It was a sort of awakening on Saturday but I fear that we’ll go to sleep again. Hernandez i thought played pretty well and had more room to move. He was denied a chance of a 20m free kick but a selfish and bossy Muscat who just couldn’t help himself…what a great leader??? We have no chance of making the finals but hopefully we can go down swinging!!!!
What we’ve been missing from Fred all year it looks like we may have had sitting on the bench all year. Patafta is quick and creative, something which is hugely lacking in the so called ‘experienced’ players. Let’s hope merrick is clever enough to realise that allsopp, brebner and kemp haven’t showed why they should be in the starting lineup, and keeps patafta, caceres and vasilevski in.
As much as I am also unhappy with Merrick’s performance this year, I actually think he will reward Patafta’s performance next week.
My only reason to doubt this is Nick Ward entering the fray. Someone will likely make way for him and whether that is Patafta, Caceres or Hernandez is anyone’s guess (I doubt Vasilevski would be the one, considering his good performances and Merrick’s clear preference towards him). The other distinct possibility is that Ward would come on as a substitute.
I couldn’t believe when the team went up on the screen what the line-up was, curiously enough the night before I’d looked at the squad and picked my players and formation then thought nah, that’ll never happen, so to see Ryall with Patafta, Hernandez and Caceres all starting together was a pleasant surprise, I’d thought Keenan would start though. The first 20 mins showed real promise, and had one of those chances gone in I’m sure Melbourne would have gone on to win, but the intensity and creativity was there that we’d all been hoping to see. Both the Adelaide goals were scrappy and it looks on the replay like Muscat just ball-watches as Agostino pounces for the first, and is bundled from behind by the same player for the second – actually looks like a foul now. At two-nil down I thought it would prove too much but the character was there to fight back, unlike last week, interestingly both goals came after the substitutions and Keenan won the free-kick that lead to the equaliser. Those last few minutes were some of the best moments for a while and you could sense belief returning and confidence growing. After the Wellington draw it felt like a loss, but after this one it felt like a win, more importantly it felt like a step forward and breath of fresh air. Let’s hope it continues.
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