Entries from July 2007 ↓

There’s still some 44 days to go before Melbourne lines up against Wellington in the 1st round of the new season, but all’s not lost for the Victory fanatic dying to see the team in action. Here’s a round-up of what’s happening for the next month and a bit:

• Thursday, 12 July. Open training session at Olympic Park. 10:00am – 11:30am. Enter via the Western Grandstand.
• Sunday, 15 July. Melbourne Victory vs. Adelaide United. Aurora Stadium, Launceston. 1:00pm. Tickets available through Max Events.
• Thursday, 19 July. Open training session at Skilled Stadium, Geelong. 12:30pm – 2:00p. Enter via the Bob Davis gate.
• Sunday, 22 July. Melbourne Victory vs. Newcastle Jets. Skilled Stadium, Geelong. 2pm. Tickets available through Ticketmaster.
• Saturday, 28 July. Melbourne Victory vs. Perth Glory. Darwin Football Stadium, Darwin. 6:30pm. More information at the Football Northern Territory website.

If he looks familiar to you, that’s because you probably saw him play against the Socceroos when they faced Singapore. His name is Indra Sahdan and he is widely regarded as Singapore’s star striker.

He could be coming to Melbourne, according to a report on Today Online. But his services are also being sought by MLS team Real Salt Lake, where he is set to play a trial match. The Victory have also offered Sahdan a trial match.

Continue reading →

He’s just 18, but Kaz Patafta’s credentials read like someone at least… 1 1/2 years older.

In 2004, he received a scholarship to study with the Australian Institute of Sport; in 2005, he led the Joeys during the World Championships for under-17s; in 2006, he joined Benfica’s B team, trained with the Socceroos before the World Cup, and eventually played his first game for Benfica’s 1st team in August; and now, he’s joined the Melbourne Victory on a 1-year loan.

Continue reading →

Kevin Muscat. It’s hard to imagine the Melbourne Victory without Kevin. He is known for fierce tackles, a fiery temper and a perfect penalty-kick record.

Before moving to Crystal Palace (England) in 1996, Muscat played football for a number of Victorian clubs in the old NSL, including Heidelberg United and South Melbourne F.C. When he moved to the UK, he quickly earned himself a reputation as a hard player. Martin Grainger of Birmingham City even went so far as to call him the “most hated man in football”. Maybe so, but Muscat’s skills as a footballer saw him spend 9 seasons in the UK, playing for Crystal Palace, Wolverhampton, Rangers F.C. and Millwall F.C. He captained Millwall to the FA Cup Final in 2004 – a game he missed due to injury.

Continue reading →

With under 50 days left to go before A League version 3 begins, we figure it’s high time for us to give you the lowdown on this year’s team, one player at a time. Over the next how-ever-many weeks, we’ll be pushing out player profiles like chickens push out eggs. Frequently and with great clucking.

If you want to keep updated whenever we publish new posts, you can subscribe via RSS feed. First up is the lowdown on our captain: Kevin Muscat.

Continue reading →

Frankly, it’s not looking much better than the match against China. If Australian media wasn’t interested in the friendly against China, you can bet they won’t care about a friendly with Tianjin Teda – even if it is the Mayors’ Cup.

What about the Chinese media? I’ve searched through some P2P program guides for Chinese channels and come up with nothing. As far as I can tell, the game against Tianjin Teda will also not be on TV, be it Aussie or Chinese.

That said, if you know something I don’t, feel free to leave a comment and let the rest of us know how we can follow the game on Saturday night.

Details have unfortunately been incredibly sketchy, but reports are now in that the Victory has lost 1-0 to China tonight in a match played over three 30 minute thirds. The only goal in the match has been credited to Changchun Yatai midfielder Wang Dong, who headed the ball home in the 35th minute. Kaz Patafta and Matthew Kemp both managed to get a run. Naturally we never like to see a loss, but in reality it is not a bad result for a somewhat undermanned Melbourne against a national team in the final stages of preparation for a major tournament! Now let’s see how they do against Tianjin on Saturday.

It is great that Melbourne had the chance to play this match, but it is most unfortunate that the Victory could not cobble together even the most basic form of coverage. At the very least, surely it would have been feasible to get someone to SMS in some updates? After building up significant hype, it is a disappointing outcome for the die-hard fans.

Tonight’s game against China will not be televised. Not here, nor there. I have searched high and low. I’ve even gone through the laborious effort of translating Chinese pages into English through Google and turned up with nothing. It appears that the Melbourne vs. China match won’t even be showing in China.

But of course, if you know otherwise, please let us know by leaving a comment.

In any case, I thought it would be a fitting time for a pre-match roundup. This game is a friendly, and Merrick has pointed out that the result doesn’t matter. The Chinese are more likely to care about obtaining a win than we are: with the Asian Cup just a few days away, they will be keen to gain confidence from a solid win tonight. A loss would hurt us, but it would hurt them more.

The Victory squad is by no means its A-team. New recruits Kaz Patafta and Matthew Kemp will both get their first game, the latter buffering up the defence while Patafta will join Caceres and Allsopp up front to give Melbourne a three-pronged attack. The midfield will have to do without Brebner, who’s injured – but tall man Ljubo Milicevic, normally a central defender, will step up to support Muscat and Pantelidis in the midfield. Theoklitos keeps his spot in goals.

The fact that Milicevic is being put in midfield is somewhat telling, as it means that the Leijer/Vargas combo will once again be at the centre of the Victory defence, with Keenan and Kemp filling out the flanks. One of the questions this season will be whether Leijer and Vargas manage to keep their central spots, given the crowding of defensive players after the signings of Milicevic, Keenan and Kemp. Players are going to have to work very hard to earn their place in defence.

An article in the Australian today says that Sydney has won the bid to play David Beckham and Co. (aka. the LA Galaxy). The game’s set to be played at Telstra Stadium on November 27.

Sucks for Melbourne, who had been contending that we should get the game. No doubt we would have been able to pack the Telstra Dome for a game like that. But Sydney has won it.

Even more infuriating than that, though, is what Sydneysiders had to say about it all. George Perry, the CEO of Sydney FC, said:

“Where else would you play the game but in the best city in the world and against the best club in the country?”

Or check this out from NSW Premier Morris Lemma:

“Sydney is now the undisputed home of football in Australia and the fans have responded magnificently in recent times.”

Undisputed home of football? Best club in the country? What enormous boulder have these blokes been hiding under?