Depressing statistic: In the last 7 games it has played, the Melbourne Victory has lost five, drawn one, and won one by penalties. It has scored 4 goals and let through 9.
And yet, after the team’s loss against Sydney FC on Saturday night, the first line of the report on the Melbourne Victory website read:
“Melbourne Victory will head into the Hyundai A-League season full of confidence, despite a 1-0 loss to Sydney FC…”
Branko Culina says the Melbourne Victory were the best club Sydney played during the pre-season.
And Neil from Victory in Melbourne, was full of praise for Kaz Patafta’s 2nd half performance, and had this to say about the game:
“…it was a much improved effort from the Victory - even though they came away with another loss. In fact, they dominated long sections of the game and were largely untroubled by Sydney apart from the goal, that came from a scrappy clearance.”
The stats may be depressing, but perhaps they don’t do justice to Melbourne’s form.
What do you think? Are you still confident in the Melbourne Victory’s ability to defend its title?
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4 responses so far ↓
1 Neil // Aug 13, 2007 at 11:26 am
I’m pretty confident the team can defend its title. People have to remember a large section of the squad haven’t played a lot of games together like last year so it will take them a while to gel. Thanks for quoting me and I have now linked this blog to mine.
2 Eric // Aug 13, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Thanks for the link back Neil
3 Wes // Aug 14, 2007 at 9:18 am
Eric, I think this is just pre-season and I hope that the team will awake from its slumber. But having said that, the team has not played as well as they did in last season’s pre-season cup where they suffered only one loss against the Central Coast.
However, from what I have seen so far of Wellington Phoenix, I think I will take a draw for now against them because I think they are a decent side which is going to finish near the top.
4 Eric // Aug 14, 2007 at 9:35 am
Good point Wes. It’s true that Melbourne doesn’t usually do that well in the pre-season cup. And as Neil said, it does take time for players to gel together… Players like Hernandez and Milicevic don’t really seem to have found their feet with Melbourne yet - they’re not slotting in quite as well as I’d hope.
A draw against Wellington? I think you might be onto something. If Melbourne came away with a draw, that would probably be a cause for celebration, not concern.
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