The Melbourne Victory faltered on the road again, this time going down to a bottom-of-the-table Perth Glory side who kept their season alive with a 3-1 win. The loss, combined with a spectacular 6-1 defeat of the Wellington Phoenix by Adelaide United, forces Victory down to 2nd, trailing Adelaide by a point.
Melbourne’s performance was a cut above the previous week, with the Victory controlling the game for most of the second half. But two first-half goals in quick succession from Perth’s Ivorian striker, Eugene Dadi, gave the home side a strong lead, which they defended tenaciously. The Victory pressed hard and eventually pulled one back with an enterprising (and somewhat lucky) run by Ney Fabiano in the 55th minute; but after enduring all the pressure, Adriano Pellegrino fired in a wonderful goal in the 78th minute to crush the Victory.
Despite the scoreline, it was a tight game. Perth took their chances, while Melbourne didn’t take theirs. Tom Pondeljak missed a sitter, and Rodrigo Vargas narrowly edged the ball over the crossbar with his header. But football doesn’t reward possession or near-misses, only goals.
Archie Thompson had picked up a knock at training the day before, putting him out of action. But why did Merrick decide to put him on the bench if he didn’t intend to play him? Last I heard, Merrick was planning to take Evan Berger with the squad to Perth, so why he wasn’t on the bench instead of Archie is beyond me.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFkfJzDZLSc[/youtube]
1 comment so far ↓
Apparently Berger was given a run in youth league side but was subbed after 10 mins due to concussion after being flatterned by a free kick, the ball hitting him in the face. Seems a waste when he could have been on the bench instead -would have offered the team another option when things started to fall apart.
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