If 2008 ended with a bang, 2009 began with a dull thud. Melbourne Victory rose to the top of the table, albeit only for a night, with a 2-1 win over the Queensland Roar, but it wasn’t pretty.
Queensland and Melbourne, ranked second and third on the ladder before this round started, were as evenly balanced as their ranking suggested. That is, they both had chances and bungled them. Both had, overall, a poor night. It’s just that Melbourne turned it on for fifteen, maybe twenty minutes, took a two-goal lead and was able to keep the Roar from getting two back in the remaining twenty something minutes.
Archie Thompson in particular had a frustrating night, with no less than four attempts on goal gone astray in the last twenty minutes. And let’s not forget his outburst after Carlos Hernández opted to take a shot himself, rather than passing it to Archie. Nevermind that Archie had done the same thing minutes before. Nevermind. To be fair, Archie did produce the pass setting up Danny Allsopp’s opener.
It wasn’t just Archie though. Compared to the week before, the Victory played with minimal intensity. Too many beers on New Year’s Eve perhaps? The exception to the rule was Carlos Hernández, who seemed to be moving quicker than he has before. A positive sign to be sure.
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Adelaide United won their game against Sydney FC on Saturday night, putting them back at the top of the table and forcing John Kosmina to admit his side’s season is over. It also sets up a brilliant top-of-the-table encounter between Melbourne and Adelaide on Tuesday, which will go some way to determining who grasps the Minor Premiership this year.
Meanwhile, Wellington Phoenix have kept their season alive with an emphatic 3-0 win over the Newcastle Jets. They’re a point down from Queensland Roar (who have played a game less) and three points down from the Central Coast Mariners. Whether they manage to oust one of the Aussie teams will be one of the most interesting stories to watch over the next three weeks.
1 comment so far ↓
Archie gets my vote for the “Dummy Spit of 2008/09 Award”
To be fair he was running down the center closing in on Carlos when he probably should have been running left and creating width and either dragging the defender or creating more space for himself. But it was a woeful shot by Carlos and he should have laid it off.
Putting aside Archie’s misses let’s hope he and Carlos continue to play that well for the rest of the season and the goals will come.
Pondeljak was just awful in the first half and it seemed it was 10 men vs 12 as he passed the ball to Qld every time he had it.
The experiment with Berger in midfield didn’t come off and credit to Ernie for making an early change (circa version 2 season). We have unlimited midfield players but can’t get the combination right. It better fall into place soon.
I would rather start with Berger and Kemp in defense and let Thwaite warm the bench since he is leaving anyway. Kemp has played better than Thwaite each of the past two weeks when they have rotated.
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