The weather turned, crowds were down and national team commitments robbed the league of some its major attractions, but the standard of football remained high and almost 45,000 fans witnessed some enthralling, energetic clashes over the Father's Day weekend.
By losing to Sydney, the Knights find themselves on the bottom of the table, a position from which they may never rise - at least according to some observers. In fact, they are playing quite well and given a few more games should be able to challenge the mid-table teams. Defensive woes seem to be the major problem for them, with both their starting centre backs already collecting injuries. Import Simon Yeo showed a few glimpses of what he is capable of, and combined with Zenon Caravella, Joshua Rose, Noah Hickey and Sean Devine the Knights offer fairly potent attacking ability.
Sydney still don't look like the maurading, runaway champions that so many news outlets predicted they would be. It will be very interesting to see how they hold up near the end of the season, given they've had the most extensive longest pre-season (which included a trip to the Middle East) and will feature in the World Club Championships.
If Adelaide and Queensland had managed to score a goal a piece, their match would have been a ripper. The first 0-0 draw in the league was a bit of downer for the spectators, who were nevertheless treated to some spectacular long-range bombardment and aggressive midfield play. Roar's Korean import Seo Hyuk-seo is quickly proving himself one of the outstanding form players in the competition. Wouldn't it be interesting if one day we could have a Local vs. International matchup between the stars of the A-League?
The big derby match was a washout, quite literally. Featuring fewer than 6,000 spectators brave enough to face the cold, wind and drizzle, the game failed to spark to life or promote much interest in the media. Ante Milicic scored, but still hasn't shown anywhere near the form expected of him by the Jets. Ned Zelic finally put together a solid performance, and Nick Carle stepped it up another notch, but the Jets still have a long way to go if they're going to challenge for the title. Without Tom Pondeljak, the Mariners struggled early, but their fitness, speed and genuine class in the middle of the park slowly overpowered the opposition - a story that will repeat itself time and again this season.
Melbourne Victory administrators must have been extremely pleased with the tremendous sellout crowd at Olympic Park. A once-off 30% reduction in the ticket price helped some, as hundreds of fans were reportedly turned away as the gates closed more than an hour before kickoff! If this is a true indication of the level of support the club can count on every week, the new stadium (without a running track!) can't be built soon enough. The coach and players would have been less impressed with the 2-2 scoreline, which flattered an underachieving Perth Glory. If not for a bit of Bobby Despotovski magic and an unfortunate drop by keeper Eugene Galekovic (who might be lucky to hold his spot in Merrick's rotation system) and some good saves from Jason Petkovic in the first-half, Victory would have coasted to an easy win.
It was another promising weekend for the A-League, though perhaps one with few significant highlights. Kinder weather and the lack of competing football codes throughout summer should ensure that total attendance remains steady around the 45,000 mark, with marked improvement a strong possibility. And if the national team can keep developing under Guus Hiddink and put on the show of their lives against Columbia, Uruguay or Chile (who do you prefer?) late in the year, we will be headed to Germany and the game of football might just start to fly in this country.
Best of Round Two:
Player: Nick Carle (pictured) - more than a few times, almost single-handedly stealing the match from the Mariners
U-20 Player: Spase Dilevski - running riot on the flank in the early stages of the match
Coach: Lawrie McKinna - half-time adjustments that finally compensated for the late withdrawal of Pondeljak
Match: Melbourne Victory vs Perth Glory
Referee: Matthew Breeze
Goal: Robbie Middleby - aggressively challenging for the ball in the air, regaining his footing before the defender, chasing down the ball and after a couple of touches striking it sweetly into the bottom left corner from 25 metres
4-4-2 Team of the Week:
Alex Brosque - Brian Deane
Adrian Caceres - Nick Carle - Seo Hyuk-soo - Massimo Murdocca
Kevin Muscat - Ned Zelic - Michael Beauchamp - Richie Alagich
Daniel Beltrame
Subs: Chad Gibson, Angelo Costanzo, Steve Corica, Clint Bolton
No comments:
Post a Comment