Melbourne continued their very impressive start to the season with a 1-0 victory after going down to 10 men after Ney Fabiano being sent off for a spitting incident. This performance was probably more impressive than the 5-0 demolition of Newcastle given the way Melbourne controlled the game and limited Adelaide to only a handful of half-chances.
I thought Melbourne actually played better after going down to 10 men. The old partnership of Thompson and Allsopp was reformed (Thompson had been playing on the left) and these two, particularly Thompson, caused Adelaide all sorts of problems. It was really the pace and work-rate of Thompson that impressed. He earned Melbourne the penalty and was twice denied by excellent saves from Galekovic.
The other standouts for the Victory were Celeksi, Berger and Vargas. Celeski showed his versatility by playing the defensive midfield role due to the absence of Lopez. He is really not your traditional type of defensive midfielder that pings the ball around the park. Rather, he carries the ball into attack before trying to link up with the likes of Hernandez and co. Berger was a real menace down the left and his direct running had the Adelaide defence back-tracking all night. His final balls were sometimes wasteful but rather than that, he put in a man of the match performance. Vargas was the real cool head in defence that guided the Victory to the clean sheet and the win.
For me, this team is even more impressive that the championship winning side. The team is much more balanced and doesn’t rely on the brilliance of Fred. The movement and runs being made off the ball can completely pull defences out of shape as it did against Newcastle and again tonight against Adelaide. And when you consider the players not involved tonight: Thwaite, Broxham, Lopez, Pondeljak and Ward, you can see why this performance was so impressive.
As for the Reds, they were very flat. It was a real listless performance against a weakened opponent. Pantelis and Dodd failed to use the spaces on the flanks to any real effect and really stretch the 10 man team. Both were quite although Dodd did have a few chances with headers. The defence didn’t really cope with the Victory’s attack when it broke with pace. The nifty footwork of the likes of Thompson, Hernandez and Berger troubled the big Adelaide defenders. Not a good start to a very hectic month for the Reds.
1 Comment
September 15, 2008 at 9:53 pm
I have also been very impressed with Melbourne, Archie in particular. He’s swown a lot of strength in getting back to the form he’s in. He’s had a lot of people knock him over the the last year or so. I think Melbourne will be champions if they maintain this form. I know I will be putting money on them to win most of their matches, especially when their squad gets back to full strength.