FOOTBALL – October 10th – A-League – Melbourne Victory v Western Sydney Wanderers

It’s always a long off-season for the A-League. And what makes it even worse is that we have to wait nearly 2 months after the Europeans kick off and wait patiently for the more traditional “Aussie” sports to wrap up their playoff series before Round 1 can commence.
The Victory had recruited unbelievably well in the off-season, but it would remain to be seen what Kevin Muscat (the world’s dirtiest player) would do with his gameplan. Melbourne have played the past 2 years without a central striker, preferring 2 wingers instead (yes, still doesn’t make sense does it??) and have managed to pick up Albanian International Beshart Berisha from Brisbane Roar, who plays so central and direct that even German trains are jealous!
Add into the mix, towering centre half & former Stuttgart and French U/21 captain Matthieu DelPierre, Australian veteran International Carl Valeri, Macedonian International Daniel Georgievski and the €5 million Tunisian captain Fahid Ben Khalfallah – it will be interesting to see how the team will be set-up. It is also slightly curious as to how the Victory can fit all these “Internationals” under the stringent salary cap. Questions will be asked throughout the season – especially if they keep winning!!

A big crowd of 40,000+ had been touted in the lead-up to the glamour match-up between arguably the A-League’s two biggest clubs. Etihad Stadium, normally an AFL (or cricket) ground was in rectangular mode to give the place that real football feel. The Western Sydney Wanderers Red & Black Brigade were out in force after their Asian Champions League momentous win earlier in the week. Disappointingly though it was the home club’s support that was well down as in the end the attendance only just snuck over the 30,000 mark. The “North Terrace” were back after their strike action of last season – see, football does cross all boundaries!!!

The Victory team was announced and it had an eerie look about it. It looked as though Muscat had selected his best 11 players and built a formation to suit them. A genuine 4-3-3 was in place! It looked scary on paper, but in reality, after years of safety-first defensive focused set-ups this Keegan-esque mentality, where Muscat goads the opposition by daring them to try and score more goals than them. A refreshing change from the “as long as we don’t lose mindset” that has been prevalent over the past couple of seasons.

The Wanderers were missing a couple of key players through injury and Aussie duty, especially in defence; whereas only Milligan was missing for Melbourne. This proved critical early on when unbelievably the 6ft 3 DelPierre ghosted into the box unmarked from a Finkler free kick to volley home from 10 yards to make it 1-0 after only 8 minutes. The Wanderers were seriously under the cosh throughout and conceded a penalty which the other debutant Berisha converted. To seriously rub salt and acid into an already gaping wound, the league’s most average player “DJ BeatBrox” Leigh Broxham blasted home to make it three zip after only 29 minutes.

To be fair Melbourne looked like they were going to score every time they attacked and it was a bit of a shock when Mark Bridge nicked one back after a defensive mix-up just before the break. However, normal service was resumed early after the break when world record holder Archie Thompson slotted home a 1-on-1 to put four on the Wanderers for the very first time in their albeit short history.

The game lost its edge after that. The Wanderers tried hard but rarely threatened, and the Victory threw on players that needed a run. The RBB however maintained their fervour despite the poor showing – even at 4-1 down every man to a tee participated in the Poznan.  No matter where you go and watch in the world, its always more fun to go away! The only problem with playing in the A-League is that the trip home is a bloody long way – especially after you’ve been hammered!

This game again proves my theory that every A-League game needs an early goal to be entertaining. The longer games in this competition go without a goal the interest level wanes significantly. Unfortunately the game is not strong enough in Australia to support good old fashioned dour dogfights. The floating fan or onlooker doesn’t understand them; the coaches unfortunately aren’t quite good enough to change things enough tactically (or take the risk) to up the ante; and the players in these situations are more often than not reliant on other’s team’s mistakes to create the chances they need.

The team Melbourne have put together are good enough to beat most of the other teams in the A-League despite the men that are there to manage them. Muscat’s influence will be less of an issue this season; not that his gameplans or tactics ever really do. The players will win this thing for the Victory – and I’m saying that after Round 1!

HYUNDAI A-LEAGUE

MELBOURNE VICTORY 4 – 1 WESTERN SYDNEY WANDERERS

 

SUBBUTEO – October 11th – Melbourne Australia