Entries from August 2007 ↓

Leigh Broxham couldn’t have joined the Melbourne Victory at a better time. He signed for three years at the end of last season and featured in a number of Victory games, culminating in the big one: the Grand Final.

For an 18 year old, that’s a pretty decent way to start your contract with an A-League club.

In actual fact, Broxham has been a rising star for some time now. He became a pupil with the Victorian Institute of Sport in 2003 and the following year he captained the Victorian Under 17s, having been named the Victorian under-16 player of the year.

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He may have only turned 20 last week, but Evan Berger is a great example of the Melbourne Victory’s interest in younger players.

After two years with New South Wales’ Marconi Stallions, Berger has signed for the next two years with the Victory. He’s a promising young midfielder who played for the Australia Under 20s in India last year, as part of the World Cup qualifiers. His talent was also noted by the Australian Institute of Sport, who granted him a scholarship.

And now, he’s training alongside experienced players such Kevin Muscat, Archie Thompson and other young players his age.

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• Archie Thompson struggling with a knee injury. [more]
• Leandro Love still not registered with the Melbourne Victory – may miss Wellington match. [more]
• Concern over Carlos Hernández: “overweight, out of shape and no certainty to play.” [more]
• Grant Brebner is confident he’ll be ready for Wellington. [more]
• Ljubo Milicevic in the news, again – this time for complaining about Graham Arnold. [more]
• The club is trying to extend Ernie Merrick’s contract. [more]
• Sebastian Ryall, an Australian Under 20s player, is expected to be Adrian Leijer’s replacement. [more]

For 25 year old Daniel Vasilevski, his recent signing with the Melbourne Victory promises to grant him a 2nd chance of making an impression on the A-League.

His 1st opportunity came in the inaugural season, when the Perth Glory added the young attacker/midfielder to their roster. But injury plagued his time with the Glory, and poor Vasilevski didn’t make a single appearance during his time with the team. Left without a contract after Perth dropped him at the end of the season, he returned to Victoria and played with the Altona Magic.

But it seems Ernie Merrick and Gary Cole had bigger plans for him.

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Bored?

Check out these random Victory-related activities:

How well do you know the Melbourne Victory?

Why don’t you play this game and find out! Found it through Football in the Capital but unfortunately haven’t been able to get the million bucks yet…

Start your fantasy team

Head over to the Foxsports site and start working on your fantasy A-League team.

If you’re seriously bored, this one could keep you busy for a long time. Seriously.

While you’re over there, join a league with your MVFCBlog hosts, Eric and Pete. The league is very creatively called “The Bee League”. At the moment it’s a private league, so you have to use this code to join: 8681-1239.

A cursory glance at recent statistics will tell you the Melbourne Victory machine isn’t running as smoothly as it did last year. But when rumours surfaced last week that Ljubo Milicevic, one of this season’s star recruits, had done a runner, matters just seemed a notch worse.

Thankfully, Milicevic, a 24 year old Melbourne boy, isn’t going anywhere. With two weeks to go before the start of the season, that would be very bad news for Merrick and co indeed.
But that is not to say that the rumours are entirely unfounded. There is tension in the Melbourne camp, and it’s between Milicevic and skipper Kevin Muscat.

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Depressing statistic: In the last 7 games it has played, the Melbourne Victory has lost five, drawn one, and won one by penalties. It has scored 4 goals and let through 9.

And yet, after the team’s loss against Sydney FC on Saturday night, the first line of the report on the Melbourne Victory website read:

“Melbourne Victory will head into the Hyundai A-League season full of confidence, despite a 1-0 loss to Sydney FC…”

Branko Culina says the Melbourne Victory were the best club Sydney played during the pre-season.

And Neil from Victory in Melbourne, was full of praise for Kaz Patafta’s 2nd half performance, and had this to say about the game:

“…it was a much improved effort from the Victory – even though they came away with another loss. In fact, they dominated long sections of the game and were largely untroubled by Sydney apart from the goal, that came from a scrappy clearance.”

The stats may be depressing, but perhaps they don’t do justice to Melbourne’s form.

What do you think? Are you still confident in the Melbourne Victory’s ability to defend its title?

With Adrian Leijer’s departure to Fulham, the door has opened for Daniel Piorkowski to become a regular starter.

Signed by the Melbourne Victory in 2005, it was a while before Piorkowski began to be chosen regularly by coach Ernie Merrick. His debut for the Victory did not come till the 5th round clash with Queensland, after which he started another 9 games. His form was impressive enough to warrant 13 consecutive starts with the team in 2006, before an injury in round 13 ended his season. Now, with a few matches under his belt, he is a likely contender for Merrick’s preferred 11.

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For an 18-year old, Mitchell Langerak’s future look set to unfold quicker than he could have dreamed.

The goalkeeper was signed by the Melbourne Victory in February this year on a 2-year contract. But that was far from his first major achievement. The tide had already broken in 2006, when Langerak debuted for the Qantas Young Socceroos in a match against Argentine (which they won?) and went on to play in India for the AFC Youth Championships. When Melbourne’s Eugene Galekovic suffered …. , Langerak joined the Victory on a temporary basis.

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hG47FDenyXw[/youtube]

The way I see it, we have 2 options:

1. Sign this kid.

2. Make our strikers watch this video.