MVFC Blog

It was the night we have been waiting for for a very long time now. Melbourne’s first A-league win since the grand final was somewhat scrappy, but nonetheless, a win it was.

For much of the game, it looked like we were destined for yet another draw. The football was poor from both teams for most of the game, with wayward passes the order of the day. Neither team managed to really take control of the game, until Melbourne , somewhat against the run of play, managed to get a penalty. And one thing the Victory rarely stuffs up, is a penalty. Thanks go to our talismanic captain Muscat for yet another perfectly executed specimen. That said, the preceding shot by Archie Thompson was magnificent to say the least and really would have been a much preferred way to take the lead. But Archie was yet to have his moment in the sun. His time came when, after a wonderful lobbing pass from Leandro Love, he made no mistake from a tight spot to net his second goal of the season beautifully. Leandro’s performance has to be one of the highlights of the match - with two assists to his name (if attracting a penalty can be considered an assist), he certainly played a big part in ensuring Melbourne took all 3 points. Who would have thought our played-down, backup striker would have the impact he has had so far? He has not failed to impress when he’s had his chances and it seems that with every match he has played, his confidence has grown.

Man of the match though, has to have been Rodrigo Vargas. Hasn’t he been a star performer again so far this year? Apart from his one accidental hand-ball, which afforded Adelaide a chance to draw a few weeks back, he has been a real rock in the heart of defence. His most impressive moment last night was undoubtedly his clearing off the line of Craig Moore’s shot. Perhaps that was in fact the real turning-point of the match. After spending much of the match squandering half-chances, Roar finally had created one that by all accounts, they really should have put away. And a wake-up call like that was perhaps just what the Victory needed to pick themselves up.

Looking back on the other performances last night; it was more of less the same players doing the impressing for me. Theo was mostly solid, Ryall impressed in his brief stint and Broxham put in one of his better performances of the season. Keenan contributed an excellent night’s work, with some excellent passing and good runs down the flank. At least in him we have someone who uses the flanks appropriately and really creates opportunities. Archie continued to improve in form and, perhaps more importantly, in confidence. Another goal never hurts and with a couple of other confidence-building attempts during the match, he is certainly finding the form we so desperately need him to have.

It was by no means a convincing display, but a win’s a win, and sometimes just winning is enough to build on. Next week is going to be a testing encounter against Sydney, as it always is, and with Sydney finally finding some form as well, we will need to improve our game a notch. Then again, there’s something about playing against Sydney that really fires up Melbourne players.. I wonder what it is ?