Archie has been the club marquee since its inaugural campaign and with him re-signing today, it seems he may continue to be the marquee for the next two years.

As with most things, some fans are happy with the news, while others aren’t quite so pleased. Many don’t consider Archie to be worthy of the marquee role, preferring to use the money to attract a bigger name. But it’s worth remembering that Archie remains the league’s top scorer. And he’s impressive off-the-bench performance against the Newcastle Jets last week was another reminder that Archie, on a good day, is a powerful asset to have on your team.

At the very least, Archie will not be available for the Melbourne Victory’s April 9 Asian Champions League match against Gamba Osaka, considered by many to be the favourite of Group G. But he is likely to miss more than that, with Ernie Merrick suggesting the Victory may be without its marquee man for up to 8 weeks:

“It is very unlucky for Archie for a start. His first start for the Socceroos in six months, I know he is very disappointed,” Merrick said.

“Worse than that, the injury is very severe. We initially though it would be a grade two, but that is up to a (grade) three or four medial ligament. A MIR scan will tell us more, but we are probably looking at six to eight weeks.”

The Age

This is resoundingly bad news. After starting the ACL with a bang against the Chunnam Dragons, last week’s 3-1 loss to Chonburi FC sounded a loud warning to any Victory fans feeling over-confident. Archie’s injury is the last thing Merrick would want right now.

With Archie missing and Hernandez presumably still unavailable, Merrick has to decide who to play alongside Danny Allsopp up front. Adrian Caceres has played there before and seems the first-choice option. Leandro Love hasn’t played in a long time, and Nathan Elasi is yet to pick up any competitive game time. Any other options?

Kevin Muscat and Michael Theoklitos were joint runners-up, with Carlos Hernández trailing a point behind.

Both Thompson and Vargas picked up other awards as well, with Thompson receiving the SEN Player of the Year award and Vargas voted Players’ Player of the Year. Leigh Broxham also won multiple awards, scoring both the Clubman of the Year and the Age Young Player of the Year awards.

None of the results particularly surprise me, even though they are quite different from the Fans’ Choice Melbourne Victory Awards we hosted on MVFC Blog a month ago. Fans picked Michael Theoklitos for Best Player and Sebastian Ryall for Best Young Player (Leigh Broxham was a very distant third in that contest).

What do you think of the results of the Victory Awards?

Kevin Muscat, Archie Thompson and Rodrigo Vargas have all been picked again though.

Archie has already said he doesn’t like his chances of getting picked. Will the fact that Alex Brosque, John Aloisi and Joel Griffiths are all playing in the A-League finals help them to score a spot ahead of Thompson?

Muscat and Vargas will be up against similar challenges, of course. All up, the 20 of the 29 men selected for Pim’s second training camp are playing in the finals. Making the squad is going to be a stiff challenge for the Melbourne boys.

Which Melbourne Victory player is most likely to feature in the Socceroos squad against Qatar?

Vote in the sidebar and leave your comments below.

Only A-League players were picked for the training camp, though Verbeek insists there’s no guarantee that he’ll pick exclusively A-League players for the opening World Cup qualifier against Qatar on February 6.

On his perception of the A-League, Verbeek said:

“I enjoyed every game I’ve seen, the stadiums are fantastic, the crowds are unbelievable.”

“I saw great goals, but I saw also unbelievable mistakes.”

“It’s up to me to find out if the players make that same mistake too many times because then I cannot use them.” (The World Game)

While Archie’s inclusion in the line-up is predictable, Muscat and Vargas are surprising additions. Not that they’re undeserving – quite the contrary. Muscat is the rock-solid heart of the Victory; and Vargas has been one of the few constants in an ever-changing defensive line-up.

That Michael Theoklitos didn’t make it is disappointing. Clint Bolton and Ante Covic are the senior goalkeepers to have been picked for the camp. But Graham Arnold has selected Danny Vukovic, along with fourteen other Olyroos, to train alongside the senior Socceroos. Unsurprisingly, Leigh Broxham and Nick Ward have both been picked as well.

It will be interesting to see how many A-League players will feature in the Qatar match. If he wants any of the European-based Aussies, Verbeek knows he can get them. But since they’ll only be arriving about 48 hours before the game kicks off, a squad made up entirely of the European-based players seems risky – perhaps even more risky than a squad predominantly made up of local talent.

Check it out.

Earlier this week, Archie Thompson expressed his anger over the suspension, suggesting that he is willing to return to Europe if the “right offer” should arise. But after meeting with the other members of Melbourne’s leadership group yesterday over – you guessed it – breakfast, Archie returned to training today, making an official apology to his team mates and Victory officials (the Age).

(As an aside, I was interested to learn that the leadership team includes Rodrigo Vargas, Grant Brebner, Danny Allsopp and Kevin Muscat, as well as Archie, of course. Any surprises there?)

Ljubo Milicevic, on the other hand, has not made a noise this week, instead preferring to send all questions over to the Professional Footballers Association, his union. The Victory also appears hesitant to make any declarations about whether Milicevic’ will be staying or going. Of course, this in itself suggests that an early exit for Milicevic is a realistic possibility.

Meanwhile, a rather curious article in The Advertiser yesterday suggested that there may be talk of Milicevic moving over to Adelaide United. Adelaide have their fair share of injury problems at the moment, so it’s not surprising that they’re on the prowl for defenders. But Ljubo? Surely his performance on Friday night wasn’t impressive enough to warrant such interest?

The pair, who are close friends, went out on Friday night after the disappointing 4-1 loss to Adelaide United. Gary Cole, the Melbourne Victory’s operations manager, insisted that they “had not been drinking or acting in a manner that would bring criticism among the wider community.” (The Age) At the time of that writing, all we knew was that Milicevic and Thompson had both been suspended from training with the team. The official reason given by Cole was that it was “curfew stuff.”

An article in the Courier Mail today suggests that there may be even bigger ramifications for the players:

“As tensions at Victory yesterday came to a head, it is believed Thompson’s ‘partner in crime’ Ljubo Milicevic may be on his last chance at the club.

It is understood the coaching staff will front the Melbourne Victory board tomorrow night to demand Milicevic be released from his contract over his latest alleged misdemeanour.”

It’s well known that Milicevic hasn’t exactly had the best time at Melbourne. Besides picking up an injury in the first half against Wellington Phoenix back in round 1, there were also reports of locker-room tension between Milicevic and captain Kevin Muscat during pre-season. And now this.

Could the club really fire him for missing breakfast? Yes and no.

To be honest, I don’t think this is about the breakfast incident; nor is it about the “couple of beers” Archie and Ljubo had on Friday night. This is about Melbourne’s overall unhappiness with Milicevic’s performance, both on and off the pitch. Is it a coincidence that the “coaching staff” demanding Milicevic’s release includes Muscat, who is assistant coach? The club has previously insisted that the issues between Muscat and Milicevic earlier this year have been sorted out. That sounds decidedly false now.

Meanwhile, I’m sure Archie will walk away from this with a slap on the wrist, and no more. The Victory relies far too much on their star striker to be angry at him for very long.

Milicevic, on the other hand, looks, well… expendable.

In his two years with the Melbourne Victory, he’s scored 23 times.

Five of those goals came on February 18, 2007, in the 6 – 0 thrashing of Adelaide United.

An equally memorable occasion for the striker came in April, 2001, when Archie became the world record holder for goals scored in an international match. He scored 13 goals that day, helping the Socceroos to a 31 – 0 win.

His place in Melbourne Victory history is established.

Archie became the Victory’s marquee player after a 5-year stint with Belgium team Lierse SK. Midway through his first season with Melbourne, he attracted the attention of Guus Hiddink and became the A-League’s only representative when the Socceroos played Uruguay for a spot in the 2006 World Cup.

Archie made enough of an impression on the Dutch coach that Hiddink had him brought over to PSV Eindhoven, where Hiddink was also coach. He made two appearances with the Dutch champions before returning to the Victory.

Alongside Danny Allsopp, Archie spearheaded what was the A-League’s deadliest attack in its 2nd season. Meanwhile, he continued to play for the Socceroos, vice-captaining the team in its match against Kuwait last August.

Archie joined the Socceroos on their painful campaign in the AFC Asian Cup. It was even more frustrating for Archie, who only received a handful of game time.

“I was very disappointed with how it went for me. I really thought this was my opportunity because I’d worked so hard before the Cup… I was training really hard and it didn’t happen, so it frustrated me so bad. I came back and lost a bit of motivation.”

His absence also presented a key problem for Ernie Merrick. Without Archie, opposition defence could focus on controlling Allsopp, effectively turning the Victory attack into a rather blunt effort.

If Archie’s available, there’s really no question that he will be selected. The trouble for Merrick comes when his star striker is not available. I’ve mentioned previously the need for a third striker. We now have Leandro Love. Is that enough? What if Archie and Allsopp are called up for national duty?

Archie’s grand day…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_WCLIu5J64[/youtube]

Read more about Archie Thompson:

• Archie Thompson on Wikipedia
• Archie’s profile on Melbourne Victory website
• Archie’s warning to A-League rivals, Herald Sun, August 19, 2007
• Victory confident Thompson ‘fit to go’, The Age, August 16, 2007

Archie Thompson image thanks in large part to Simpsonize Me

Kaz Patafta will be stepping  into his place, partnering Danny Allsopp up the front. It’s a game Melbourne has to win (and preferably with a few goals) if it wants to have a crack at winning the Pre-Season Cup.

Then again, that doesn’t seem to be a huge priority. Adrian Caceres made it clear that the focus lies elsewhere:

We’re going to focus on the first game of the season because that is where it counts.

A-League News

By the way, for those of you after live coverage of the match against Perth, it’s not looking good. The Melbourne Victory site has said the game won’t be covered there. If anyone has tips on how to keep track of the game, please leave a comment.