Sorry to those who have been waiting for an update - and with my assignments submitted and exams done for the year I should be writing a little more regularly!
Last night we had "the big one" - Melbourne vs. Sydney. Although I had tipped Melbourne to win (because I always do) I was not confident going into the match. We were undermanned and Sydney were on a bit of a roll. On the day I had deluded myself into thinking we were going to smash Sydney, but once I arrived at the ground and was watching the players warm up my mood changed to worry again.
I think that either team could have won last night's match Melbourne should have won if we consider how they more or less dominated the game, and Sydney had a brilliant 10-15 minute period in the second half when they were bombarding the goal!
Despite the dominance, Melbourne really did finish with nothing to show for it. Thompson had a number of chances and most annoyingly he would cut the ball in to shoot with his left, but he doesn't really have much of a left foot! It's particularly frustrating to watch when the whole team seems to play for Thompson too.
With the injury to Corica, Sydney suddenly looked less threatening. Milligan was pushed a little further up the field (where I think he plays best, making use of his decent passing) and so Allsopp was on him for the rest of the match. It put both of them out of the game, which was perhaps a good thing since Danny hasn't been 100% this season.
Muscat was helping out the defence for the day, so Melbourne had to rely on Brebner and Broxham to work for the ball. I think that if Allsopp had not have kept Milligan quiet, Sydney may have had more opportunities. In the end, Thompson was left to work on his own - something that I really don't think he can do! It's a waste of effort on the team's behalf to get the ball up to him because he's not great at holding on to it or getting the goal! Merrick never plans on taking him off either, look at the bench! Last night we had the mandatory goalkeeper (Langerak), on defender (Berger) and two midfielders (Caceres and Patafta).
It was great to see Muscat in defence. Much like I love to watch Moore play, Muscat is so cool under pressure. I don't think I ever saw Muscat aimlessly boot the ball out of defence. There were a few classy points too, where he'd take on a player. New boy Pace has been great for Melbourne, and last night was awesome with Bridges not being able to do a thing!
Juninho made a huge difference to Sydney when he came on, it was scary to see from the Melbourne perspective. And while Caceres finally got more than 10 minutes, if only he'd use his right occasionally! He's done it before!
3 comments:
Some credit for the performance on Saturday night must also go to Vasilevski who provided a lot more drive on his wing than Keenan has for most of the season.
Watched the game from the third level for the first time ever. It gives a whole different perspective to the game than way I normally see it on the first level as you can the runs and moves of both teams off the ball. But I still enjoy my Level 1 seat and my prawn sandwiches so won't be making a permanent move to the upper levels.
Was surprised that Juninho didn't come on when Corica came off as he certainly changed the game when he eventually did come on and took back the initiative that Melbourne had at that time.
Vasilevski won me over last week against Central Coast. The good thing about watching him at home was that I could just watch him if I wanted to. He's got a lovely stride, a very smooth gait with a sufficiently quick stride rate to avoid danger. He also seems to sit a little low when he runs, which would be great from a centre of gravity point of view, and the best thing is that this low position doesn't seem to affect his stride at all!
I wouldn't be suprised if Kossie didn't want to play Juninho early in case one of our boys would go to ensure he required shoulder surgery. And he looked to be in pain last week, so precautionary perhaps. But his presence on the pitch was the reason why Sydney were so dangerous for a period.
Kossie said just that in the Press Conference..he thought Melbourne might be a little rough
the guy is a World Cup winner..he can do rough
I reckon he was dropped!!
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