On Tuesday, I asked: Can a Melbourne side without Archie Thompson and Carlos Hernández score goals?
The answer, irrefutably, is yes.
Two goals from Danny Allsopp and another from Rodrigo Vargas, on most days, should have been enough to wrap this one up.
But three wasn’t enough to beat Gamba, nor to get a draw.
The J-League side, playing their fourth match in nine days, looked shaky at the start. For once, our long balls were paying off, due more to poor Osaka defending than Danny Allsopp’s prowess. Melbourne could have been two up within five minutes.
At one – nil, Melbourne was surging, and Gamba’s backline was betraying them. But this was an open, free-scoring match. A delicious long-range goal from Takahiro Futagawa put Osaka back on level terms in the 32nd minute.
The first surprising choice – surprised me, at least – was Ernie Merrick’s decision to replace Steven Pace with Steve Pantelidis. Pace had been slow on the ball and appeared to be playing too far forward too often, but to replace him with the lumbering Pantelidis seemed illogical, especially with Melbourne a goal down. Why not inject an energetic, creative player like Kaz Patafta into the mix?
But maybe Pantelidis’ introduction paid off, as the Victory levelled shortly after, going into the break 2-2.
Gamba seemed to settle in during the second half, cutting down on defensive errors. Consequently, the Victory long-ball approach to attacking football proved futile, as Danny Allsopp would be nullified by two defenders. You can’t blame Allsopp – not much he can do with it – but I had to wonder why none of our midfielders were pushing up behind him, ready to pounce on loose balls. As it were, there was little pressure on Gamba’s centre backs.
The Victory did manage to go ahead, a little too early according to some pundits. The second Melbourne goal from a spot-kick, tucked away by Allsopp. But with 20 minutes left on the clock, Melbourne were looking tired. This was a game in which Gamba were supposed to be the ones tiring, not us. The introduction of Kaz Patafta and Daniel Vasilevski in the final ten minutes came too late.
In the end, 3-4 was a bitter result. Besides almost killing our chances of making it past the group stage (although the Chunnam Dragons’ win over Chonburi FC certainly gives us a little more hope), it was disappointing to see the Victory leak so many goals. How many times has Theoklitos let through four in 90 minutes?
Even more frustrating was Melbourne’s continued use of long-balls. The futility of these was summed up most poignantly when Steve Pantelidis, coming into possession after a Gamba corner, decided to send a long-ball forward – despite the fact that all his team mates were with him in the Melbourne box.
‘Nuff said.
6 comments ↓
Great effort by the lads but we were simply outclassed.
Muscy showed his value and Danny tried very hard.
I think Theo has been looking a little shaky of late and the boys in the back were simply out muscled.
The lads from Osaka were constantly making runs to advantage, had time on the ball and their passing effectiveness was excellent. (I’d like to see our stats on % effective passes on the night, but with our love of the long ball I fear it wont be too good)
Ernie was outcoached and out of his depth. Now you could say he did the best with what was avalable, but he has had all season to get the mix right. We recruit injured players and keep injured and not up to scratch internationals in our ACL squad. Then theres the non use of Kaz which continues to baffle us all.
The board may be trying to get through on the cheap but it is Ernie’s job to make them see that the fans deserve a better squad than this. Once again, I’m not having a go at the lads as they gave their all but if we seriously want to compete at this level we need to put our money where our mouth is and produce the squad that is required.
Gamba did look a little jaded at the start, but once they got into their stride they looked very composed and confident. The fact that they are just beginning a new campaign and are more match-fit and battle hardened than Melbourne, who finished their season months ago is one thing that will always hamper A-League teams in this competition – friendlies help but are not quite the same, and the question of the squad needing improvement is down to the salary cap basically, you can’t attract players from a higher level down to a lower wage, let alone the relative prestige of a competition, and asking them to make a big geographical move , all the best Australian players are ‘over there’.
The tactics – long-ball or not – are down to the coach, and Gamba did play a slick passing game, but once again it’s partly technical ability that offers the option of a non-long-ball approach. On that note, it’s been said that Kaz is the most technically gifted player currently in the squad, and if the rest of the squad are not up to the one-touch flicks and tricks then maybe that sort of answers the question why he only gets a cameo ten minutes at the end of most matches.
To be honest I thought Muscat was the only one that looked capable at this level, and although the players mostly gave their all, the energy and concentration levels weren’t there for that f inal five minutes that made the difference, look closely at that last goal for Gamba.
Quite odd to see a game where most of the goals were headers, was it six out of the seven? Anyway, it was nice to dream of becoming the first team to make a mark in Asia but I think that time is a way off yet. Perhaps by the next time we get a chance to be in the ACL the A-league will have evolved to the point where there is not such a seeming disparity in class.
All valid points. I thought Muscat truly showed that he is a cut above the rest and is a geniuine international talent. His poise really stood out above all others on the pitch for both sides. Hopefully the powers that be at the FFA will re-assess salary cap restrictions seeing that the league has outgrown its limit. Money = quality and if we are to seriously compete with these big spending Japanese and Arab teams we need to spend money. Although it looks as if the horse has bolted for this campaign I am quietly hoping that the ACL reviews the Champions league format and allows 4 Australian teams next year which means if we win the league in season 4 we will get another crack in 2009 along with the Mariners and the Jets. I don’t know about you guys but I think the Asian Champions League is fantastic.
The salary cap is there to grow OUR league, i think we need to concentrate on whats important here first, priority should be the a-leauge and if you increase the salary cap not all clubs can keep up, from there on its downhill for some of them.
Once the a-league is a little bigger there will be more money, and we will all be able to compete more effectivly but lets concentrate on that first and champions league second.
Muscat showed why he is a star, he didnt do a thing wrong for me all night and i look forward to the day when he is our coach. Merrick however is not only out of his depth is the a-league it seems but also the champions league, the team that we currently have is capable of bigger and beeter things – like making it out of our group – the coach however, i feel, is not.
On the salary cap issue the solution is to take it from a fixed $ amount to a fixed percentage of your income so clubs that can generate money either in gate takings or merchandise or sponsorship can spend it building their clubs. As a % of income you then cant overspend what you dont have or go broke through excessive player payments. (The Mariners raised more sponsorship $ than MVFC last year so it wouldnt necessarily mean MVFC would dominate because of our crowds)
As for the Gamba game lets not loose sight of the fact that we only won only 6 games last year, we finished outside the top 4, we played this game without Hernandez (our best player at the end of last season), without Thompson (our marquee player – albeit, i think overrated) and we were playing out of season … in that light the fact that we effectively matched it with Gamba and played some good football along the way says that we are not too far off the pace. We have the cake … we are just missing the icing!
It was an absolutely crackin’ game on Wednesday night and unfortunately we were on the wrong end of the result. Whilst there is no doubt the players efforts need to be praised we did’nt get the job done!!!! Gamba’s strikers and attacking midfielders were continually getting behind our defenders in the first half until the change was made to bring on Panto. Muscat looked slow and ill prepared to assist and unfortunately for Pacey he was just not up to the task. Gamba’s work from the set pieces in the second half was something that I am yet to see any A-League club replicate – it was unbelievable. Our defence of their set pieces was simply not good enough highlighted by no effort from Caceras on the post of their third goal to get to the ball. Whilst we were most definitely touched up by a classy side, the under lying question needs to be asked, Has Ernie Taken This Squad As Far As He Can? He played Nick Ward up front when if available he had Pondeljak available to slip in to Archies shoes and keep Nick in midfield. It was not one of Ward’s better games. We were poor with our control in midfield as it was clear that young players in the form of Brox and Celeski against that class were not capable of playing that standard all night which showed out in the end. We tried to use our width and yet again Matthew Kemp was not up to the task, with poor delivery of the ball up front at times. I think that there were opportunities to make sub’s at the 60 minute mark which he left until nearly 80 minutes and I think that this demonstrates his unwillingness to promote attacking football, rather taking a conservative approach. In my mind there is no point in leaving them on the bench when you are a goal down and needing to win. Further to this the side as a whole are not gelling together well. They only look a little better together than they did at around round 4 or 5 of the A league this last year. Ernie made a heap of changes to the squad this past year, some of them forced the bulk of them in order to strenghthen the squad. If you happen to have a Champions scarf count the names that are now no longer with the club. I believe that it was 13 out the 20 players displayed that are no longer at the club. It is unacceptable to turnover 2/3rds of your squad and not get a result which is at least A-League finals. He has not demonstrated an ability to make this new squad gell and work together as a team. Anyway lets see what other results come out of this tournament.
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