Entries Tagged 'Archie Thompson' ↓

Archie Thompson has re-signed with the Melbourne Victory for another two years.

Archie has been the club marquee since its inaugural campaign and with him re-signing today, it seems he may continue to be the marquee for the next two years.

As with most things, some fans are happy with the news, while others aren’t quite so pleased. Many don’t consider Archie to be worthy of the marquee role, preferring to use the money to attract a bigger name. But it’s worth remembering that Archie remains the league’s top scorer. And he’s impressive off-the-bench performance against the Newcastle Jets last week was another reminder that Archie, on a good day, is a powerful asset to have on your team.

The calf injury Archie Thompson picked up in the Socceroo’s World Cup qualifier with China earlier this week could keep him on the sidelines for the next six weeks.

At the very least, Archie will not be available for the Melbourne Victory’s April 9 Asian Champions League match against Gamba Osaka, considered by many to be the favourite of Group G. But he is likely to miss more than that, with Ernie Merrick suggesting the Victory may be without its marquee man for up to 8 weeks Continue reading →

Archie Thompson and Rodrigo Vargas were announced as co-winners of the Victory Medal last night.

Kevin Muscat and Michael Theoklitos were joint runners-up, with Carlos Hernández trailing a point behind.

Both Thompson and Vargas picked up other awards as well, with Thompson receiving the SEN Player of the Year award and Vargas voted Players’ Player of the Year. Leigh Broxham also won multiple awards, scoring both the Clubman of the Year and the Age Young Player of the Year awards.

None of the results particularly surprise me, even though they are quite different from the Fans’ Choice Melbourne Victory Awards we hosted on MVFC Blog a month ago. Fans picked Michael Theoklitos for Best Player and Sebastian Ryall for Best Young Player (Leigh Broxham was a very distant third in that contest).

What do you think of the results of the Victory Awards?

Pim Verbeek held his second training camp yesterday, this time calling in 29 players from the A-League. Eight of the players at the last training camp were left out this time, including the Melbourne Victory’s Leigh Broxham and Nick Ward.

Kevin Muscat, Archie Thompson and Rodrigo Vargas have all been picked again though.

Archie has already said he doesn’t like his chances of getting picked. Will the fact that Alex Brosque, John Aloisi and Joel Griffiths are all playing in the A-League finals help them to score a spot ahead of Thompson?

Muscat and Vargas will be up against similar challenges, of course. All up, the 20 of the 29 men selected for Pim’s second training camp are playing in the finals. Making the squad is going to be a stiff challenge for the Melbourne boys.

Which Melbourne Victory player is most likely to feature in the Socceroos squad against Qatar?

Vote in the sidebar and leave your comments below.

Pim Verbeek announced his 22-man selection for a Socceroos training camp next week. Among them are Melbourne Victory’s Archie Thompson, Kevin Muscat and Rodrigo Vargas.

Only A-League players were picked for the training camp, though Verbeek insists there’s no guarantee that he’ll pick exclusively A-League players for the opening World Cup qualifier against Qatar on February 6.

On his perception of the A-League, Verbeek said:

“I enjoyed every game I’ve seen, the stadiums are fantastic, the crowds are unbelievable.”

“I saw great goals, but I saw also unbelievable mistakes.”

“It’s up to me to find out if the players make that same mistake too many times because then I cannot use them.” (The World Game) Continue reading →

Apparently Lynch was missing, so the two Victory stars decided to interview each other. Topics include the Phoenix match, the upcoming match against Perth, Muscat’s send-off and the Socceroos World Cup qualification draw.

Check it out.

Things appear to be settling down on the Archie front, but a great big question mark is still looming over Ljubo Milicevic’ future with the Melbourne Victory.

Earlier this week, Archie Thompson expressed his anger over the suspension, suggesting that he is willing to return to Europe if the “right offer” should arise. But after meeting with the other members of Melbourne’s leadership group yesterday over – you guessed it – breakfast, Archie returned to training today, making an official apology to his team mates and Victory officials (the Age).

(As an aside, I was interested to learn that the leadership team includes Rodrigo Vargas, Grant Brebner, Danny Allsopp and Kevin Muscat, as well as Archie, of course. Any surprises there?)

Ljubo Milicevic, on the other hand, has not made a noise this week, instead preferring to send all questions over to the Professional Footballers Association, his union. The Victory also appears hesitant to make any declarations about whether Milicevic’ will be staying or going. Of course, this in itself suggests that an early exit for Milicevic is a realistic possibility.

Meanwhile, a rather curious article in The Advertiser yesterday suggested that there may be talk of Milicevic moving over to Adelaide United. Adelaide have their fair share of injury problems at the moment, so it’s not surprising that they’re on the prowl for defenders. But Ljubo? Surely his performance on Friday night wasn’t impressive enough to warrant such interest?

When Ljubo Milicevic and Archie Thompson missed breakfast on Saturday morning, who knew their absence would cause the controversy that has developed over the past few days. The incident has escalated into question marks over whether Milicevic still has a place at the Melbourne Victory.

The pair, who are close friends, went out on Friday night after the disappointing 4-1 loss to Adelaide United. Gary Cole, the Melbourne Victory’s operations manager, insisted that they “had not been drinking or acting in a manner that would bring criticism among the wider community.” (The Age) At the time of that writing, all we knew was that Milicevic and Thompson had both been suspended from training with the team. The official reason given by Cole was that it was “curfew stuff.”

An article in the Courier Mail today suggests that there may be even bigger ramifications for the players:

“As tensions at Victory yesterday came to a head, it is believed Thompson’s ‘partner in crime’ Ljubo Milicevic may be on his last chance at the club.

It is understood the coaching staff will front the Melbourne Victory board tomorrow night to demand Milicevic be released from his contract over his latest alleged misdemeanour.”

It’s well known that Milicevic hasn’t exactly had the best time at Melbourne. Besides picking up an injury in the first half against Wellington Phoenix back in round 1, there were also reports of locker-room tension between Milicevic and captain Kevin Muscat during pre-season. And now this.

Could the club really fire him for missing breakfast? Yes and no.

To be honest, I don’t think this is about the breakfast incident; nor is it about the “couple of beers” Archie and Ljubo had on Friday night. This is about Melbourne’s overall unhappiness with Milicevic’s performance, both on and off the pitch. Is it a coincidence that the “coaching staff” demanding Milicevic’s release includes Muscat, who is assistant coach? The club has previously insisted that the issues between Muscat and Milicevic earlier this year have been sorted out. That sounds decidedly false now.

Meanwhile, I’m sure Archie will walk away from this with a slap on the wrist, and no more. The Victory relies far too much on their star striker to be angry at him for very long.

Milicevic, on the other hand, looks, well… expendable.

Archie Thompson needs no introduction.

In his two years with the Melbourne Victory, he’s scored 23 times.

Five of those goals came on February 18, 2007, in the 6 – 0 thrashing of Adelaide United.

An equally memorable occasion for the striker came in April, 2001, when Archie became the world record holder for goals scored in an international match. He scored 13 goals that day, helping the Socceroos to a 31 – 0 win.

His place in Melbourne Victory history is established.

Continue reading →

News on MelbourneVictory.com.au suggests that Archie Thompson won’t be ready for the game against Perth in Darwin tomorrow night. Apparently, his sojourn with the Socceroos camp has left the Melbourne Victory’s marquee man worse off than we’d hoped.

Kaz Patafta will be stepping  into his place, partnering Danny Allsopp up the front. It’s a game Melbourne has to win (and preferably with a few goals) if it wants to have a crack at winning the Pre-Season Cup.

Then again, that doesn’t seem to be a huge priority. Adrian Caceres made it clear that the focus lies elsewhere:

We’re going to focus on the first game of the season because that is where it counts.

A-League News

By the way, for those of you after live coverage of the match against Perth, it’s not looking good. The Melbourne Victory site has said the game won’t be covered there. If anyone has tips on how to keep track of the game, please leave a comment.