Melbourne Victory 0 v 0 Perth Glory
Ch The Champions returned to The Telstra Dome in front of a huge home support. (32,000) I thought after last week's performance the Glory could be slaughtered, but even without defenders David Tarka or Hayden Foxe who are out for the season, Coach Ron Smith was able to produce a strong defensive and positive attacking performance that should ensure Glory have a much better season than last. Victory are still Victory. They must attack at home in front of the passionate crowd but every team in the A-League will see once again, that silencing the Victory at home will be possible. Good chances fell to Archie Thompson and Grant Brebner early, but neither could finish. The Glory stood tall and Nikolai Topor-Stanley was prominent in defence and in attack. Leo Bertos and Billy Celeski were also busy around the Victory box. A fascinating tactical battle. As much from the bench as on the field. Half-Time 0-0 Perth controlled most of the second half. They got players back behind the ball and kept a strong structure. It was a physical game. Kevin Muscat sets the tone for Victory and opposition teams have to match him if they are to get over the Victory. Perth certainly did. They pushed wide, used their full-backs effectively. Youngster Mitchell Prentice caught the eye. When Jamie Harnwell came on late the Glory almost pinched it. Victory are lacking a forward threat at the moment. They still have Archie but neither Carlos Hernandez nor Kaz Patafta have yet produced the balls the forwards thrived on last year. It's early days. Newcastle last year were near the bottom after seven games. And I expect both these teams to improve. If the Glory can score they will challenge for a top four spot. Victory despite their fantastic run last year did not have it easy at home. This season could again see their best performances on the road. Next week they are away to Adelaide. Now that will be a cracker at Hindmarsh. The Glory play Sydney in Perth.
3 comments:
Tactical??
i thought it was a horrible game
I blame this both on the way the two teams play, they hardly try to hold onto possession and often just go for long balls, when they run out of ideas.
But also i think the pitch in this game played a HUGE HUGE part in the quality of the game.. when will the A-league learn, if you dont get a decent surface you are going to get a crap game.. and that surface was a joke it was uneven and ridden with bumps...
Honestly i know they wanted to get the big crowds in but that is a joke.. because if they keep providing thoes surfaces, then the games are just going to be crap anyway
Much like I couldn't watch Perth vs. Newcastle last week, if I wasn't a Melbourne fan and at Telstra Dome I would've walked away from the TV set.
I don't think our boring play and apparent reliance on long balls is due to the surface of TD. I simply think we didn't have any ideas. Patafta, who has been a spark of energy in the preseason cup and against Wellington had no, or little effect. He seemed to get out-muscled, and I think his early yellow card put the dampener on him.
I'm quite annoyed with Archie for not passing the ball off to Allsopp at about the 85 minute mark when we had superior numbers to Perth - 2 to 1 (not including the keeper). Archie should've passed it off to the left, where Allsopp was, as the Perth defender was approaching (can't remember who - I was very Melbournised at this point of the night). But no, Archie chose to hold onto the ball, and upon being tackled by nameless Perth defender, lost possession of the ball.
Keenan's injury didn't help either - he's a little consistent, but if he's on the field at least there's a chance of him producing something special. Caceres not in the squad was also a disappointment - he's a far more competitive player this season by what I've seen and I can only hope there was a good excuse for him not to have even been on the bench this week. I'm hoping he's making the trip to Adelaide.
seems to me them Melbourne fans are flat...but Perth done well considering
it's a long season and Vicky Torians should take heart from the fact that their home form was ordinary last year..excluding finals..and looked what happened last year:)
The A-League is last man standing wins, and this year all yours are falling early, Ljubo, Carlos, Joe Keenan etc
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