It was a defenders’ night, with Kevin Muscat and Rodrigo Vargas scoring a goal apiece to give Melbourne Victory a 2-0 win over the Chunnam Dragons. And a third defender, Matthew Kemp, won the penalty that would lead to the opening goal. With defenders like these, who needs strikers?
It looked like it could have been a long night for the Victory defense when Chunnam’s Ronaldo-lookalike, Victor Simoes, came dangerously close to getting in behind Muscat and Vargas in the first few minutes. But that did not prove to be indicative of what was to come, as Chunnam’s attackers rarely penetrated the Victory backline. A half-dozen shots from outside the penalty area constituted the bulk of the Dragons’ chances, while Michael Theoklitos made two critical saves to keep a clean sheet.
At the other end, Chunnam’s defence struggled to contain the Melburnian attack. Archie Thompson and Adrian Caceres found plenty of space to make runs, while Billy Celeski, Nick Ward and Leigh Broxham were a compelling and effective combination in the centre of the park. I did not expect to see Celeski instead of Kaz Patafta, but the Olyroo certainly stated his case for regular inclusion in the starting lineup.
Melbourne moved the ball with fluidity and purpose, but struggled to finish chances. Archie was having a particularly poor night in this department, shooting when he should have laid it off, and passing when he had a better shot himself. Danny Allsopp rarely shone, but was unlucky to have a goal disallowed thanks to a bad offside decision.
But the poor refereeing flowed both ways, with Steve Pantelidis very lucky to avoid a card and a penalty after launching a shoulder at a Chunnam attacker’s head. The Dragons deserved a penalty for that challenge.
It was great to see and hear Victory fans produce the kind of atmosphere that was stifled throughout the A-League season. A crowd of 23,000 felt small, but the support was there, with the packed Northern and Southern stands buoyed by the addition of drums and oversized flags. (As an aside, can anyone explain the green, red and yellow flag?).
Meanwhile, Chonburi FC managed a 1-1 draw against Gamba Osaka. Their ability to withstand ninety minutes of Gamba’s pressure certainly suggests that Melbourne have their work cut out for them against the Thai champions. Conversely, Gamba’s inability to score until the dying minute offers hope that the 6-1 triumph over Houston Dynamo last month was not the norm.
Adelaide United pulled off a surprise victory against the Pohang Steelers in South Korea, winning 2-0 despite having a player sent off at half-time. Their win puts them at the top of their group.
8 comments ↓
What a great match. The little moments were fantastic too – Celeski’s hip-and-shoulder early on, Muscat’s nifty heel-flick to clear the ball deep in defense… and that Korean reverse-crab-walking off the pitch (lol!).
Certainly a stunner. Allsopp’s “offisde” goal was an atrocious call by the ref, but Chunnam could have easily had two penalties – Vargas’ studs-up challenge in the 88th minute made contact; the ref’s bold decision to claim a dive was welcome, but I’m not convinced it was correct.
Let’s steal 3 points next week and start our run into the knock-out stages!
I personally thought we played great, good moments from Celeski but horrible ones too… Played totally shit for times on end.
Awesome result, especially considering Gamba have fallen over already. The referee was good for the majority of the match. He set the tone early by not rewarding their diving which was great to see. We were lucky not to concede a penalty but the game was dead by then. Trust me we will get our fair share of bad decisions when we travel so take what you can get. There is no doubt we were the better side. Midfield looked good and worked hard. Even Kemp had a surprisingly good game. Muscat and Vargas were very cool in defence and Theo was good when needed. It looks like we mean business and I am confident we can top the group.
I was surprised to see no card for the player that fouled Kemp in the box, leading to the penalty. Surely a tackle like that would be worth a yellow at least?
But yes, all in all the refereeing was ok. Worked out even, with Pantelidis getting away with a body check that should have been a penalty, and Allsopp obviously on-side for his second disallowed goal.
i thought it was a great game, overall Victory suprised me with their patience, the first half was good Thompson was not man of the match!
billy ‘the kid’ celeski from my point of view was great, yes he made some silly mistakes (first real game for victory it has to be expected) but over all his dead balls were on target and much better than victory have had in a while. kemp was good much better than his a-league performances. Nick Ward seemed a little out of touch from the stands, but after watching it on telly he had agood effect for some one who has been injured.
Kaz is just simply too small, i thought the ACL would be his playground; thinking about the asian teams lack of height and physicallity… boy was i wrong Chunnam matched us for both, we just seemed fitter..
looking forward to the next home game and a bigger crowd… and like it has been said before… wat was with the green/yellow/red flag, is some one colourblind or is there meaning to it?
I saw the video of Gamba vs Chonburi. Gamba were so much better but they couldn’t finish. It was one of those nights. They are gonna be tough. The good thing is we only need a couple of draws against them and we will just about be through.
what a fantastic start! melbourne take all three point and the other teams draw.
i thought the refing was ok at best, no better than the a-league, but the good thing was it went both ways, melbourne should have coped a couple against but then there was danny’s goal that was on side so it balances out in the end.
everyone played well, but considering we were allowed to dribble into there half for the first half of the game i was expecting afew more goals but it was the first game and im sure everyone was finding there feet again with a couple of changes, if hernadez had have played we would have romped it in and im keen to see what we can do when he does come back.
all in all a great game…but then any game you win has to be a great one huh:)
and the man of the match was clearly the dragons keeper….
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