A goal from Tom Pondeljak in the 82nd minute was enough to give Melbourne a 1-0 victory over the Newcastle Jets yesterday, setting the Victory up for its first Pre-Season Cup final.
It’s been a promising pre-season for Melbourne. After narrowly losing to Adelaide United two weeks ago, the Victory scored a 1-0 win over the Perth Glory last week. Compare that with last year’s pre-season, when Melbourne lost four in a row.
It’s also encouraging to see Melbourne’s new recruits creating problems for the opposition. Melbourne’s goals in its past three matches have come from Ney Fabiano, Michael Thwaite and Pondeljak, suggesting that this year, Melbourne’s squad doesn’t just look good on paper: it also looks good on the field.
Melbourne faces the Wellington Phoenix on Wednesday night in Wellington, after the New Zealand side beat Sydney FC 3-2.
5 comments ↓
Promising, certainly much better than last year. Would be nice to get the pre-season silverware, even if it doesn’t mean a great deal
Its a pity we dont get to see any coverage of the games on TV but the write-up for all matches have been pretty encouraging.
I think that the most encouraging thing was Ernie actually sounding pissed off that they lost the fist game and saying during the tournament that we were serious about winning games. Last year it was all excuses and comments about not worrying but we’d be right for the season – we know how wrong that was!
Maybe the message has got through to all that we expect Melb to be competitive, serious and playing good football all the time and winning more than loosing. That’s what will keep putting bums on seats.
Go Victory!
Roll on the new season …
Yeah, it is pretty disappointing not to be able to watch the games. It really takes away from the Cup’s appeal, and just makes it feel even more inconsequential.
But, as Peter said, it’ll still be nice to add a bit more silverware to the cabinet!
Things definately looking good and great to see the new boys gelling well and even getting on the scoresheet. A bit worrying that Allsopp hasn’t scored at all.
It’s also a bit disapointing that none of the pre-season games have been played in Victoria. Sure we want to build the game in Tassie, but I reckon there shold be at least one game in regional Victoria too to build the game here.
Yeah, interesting point about Allsopp. He was in good scoring form towards the end of last season and during the ACL, so I wonder if it’s just a few off days. I do hope Merrick is willing to drop him if he’s not converting – the threat of being dropped can often draw the best out of players. Saw that with Allsopp last year actually, when he spent a game on the bench towards the end of the year, then fired up and started scoring regularly again.
I also wonder how much Allsopp relies on having Archie there. Those two have been playing together for so long, they have a much better understanding with each other than either will have with Fabiano. That may just e a matter of gelling together I suppose.
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