Entries from October 2007 ↓

The Perth Glory will line up against the Melbourne Victory at the Telstra Dome tomorrow night, in a rematch of the Round 2 clash that ended in a rather drab 0 – 0 draw.

The Glory are yet to win a match this year, but they are coming off what was arguably their best match of the season last week, against Sydney FC. Perth went 3 – 1 up in that match, but Sydney snatched back two goals to gain a point. A heartbreaking draw, to be sure; but I think Ron Smith and co. will take a lot of encouragement from the performance. In particular, James Robinson looked very dangerous. He makes his return to the Telstra Dome tomorrow, this time in Perth gear.

The Victory, on the other hand, suffered their first loss of the season to a vibrant and convincing Adelaide United. Adelaide outclassed a Melbourne side missing Kevin Muscat and Grant Brebner, putting my predictions to utter shame.

Muscat has been named in tomorrow’s squad, but it’s still doubtful whether he’ll make an appearance. Brebner should be straight back into the starting 11. Like fellow blogger Neil, I have not been overly impressed with Brebner’s performances so far this season, but last week indicated that a Melbourne side without Brebner and Muscat is desperately lacking. The other good news this week is that Leigh Broxham is close to returning, after a thigh strain forced him to miss the last two matches.

Last time I wrote my preview for this fixture, I predicted a fairly comfortable 2 – 0 win for the Victory. Peter commented, predicting an even more comfortable 3 – 0. We both turned out quite wrong. This time around, I’m going to predict 2 – 0 again, but I’ll add that it will be a tough and very tight affair. Frankly, I expect a resilient Perth with a thirst for their first win of the season.

My tip: Melbourne Victory 2, Perth Glory 0

Your tip?

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.

The Melbourne Victory meets Adelaide United tonight, in what has been dubbed a “grand final rematch” (just how many times will these two teams play each other before it stops being a grand final rematch?).

Adelaide have a tough game ahead of them. Certainly, they have looked like one of this season’s better prospects so far; but injury and national team duty is forcing coach Aurelio Vidmar to field players who have had little to no game time. The Reds will have to do without strike pair Bruce Djite and Nathan Burns, as well as Paul Agostino, Bobby Petta and Kristian Sarkies.

Adelaide will be particularly hurt by the absence of Djite and Burns, who have looked like the A-League’s most exciting duo this season. The fact that the “back-up” striker, marquee Paul Agostino, is out due to a calf injury, only adds to the frustration. In the absence of these three, striker Dez Giraldi has an opportunity to impress – and with only 93 minutes of game time in two years, Girladi will have plenty of motivation to impress.

The Melbourne Victory, of course, have their own injury problems, after it was confirmed last week that Daniel Piorkowski will be out for up to 12 weeks. Leigh Broxham’s thigh injury keeps him out of the squad for another week as well. And Melbourne will have to do without Grant Brebner, who has picked up a one week suspension thanks to four yellow cards. Reports from the Melbourne camp suggest that Kevin Muscat may miss tonight, but Aurelio Vidmar and myself don’t think this is particularly likely.

Last time we played Adelaide, I was doubtful of a win, tipping a 1-1 draw. Melbourne went into that game without Broxham, Joe Keenan and Archie Thompson, while Adelaide were only missing Djite. After a rather eclectic 2 minutes from Rodrigo Vargas, my tip turned out to be correct.

Tonight, both teams are again hurt by injury and national team duty, but I think Adelaide would be hurting more. Of course, experience has shown that fielding players who haven’t had much opportunity can pay off. I expect Adelaide to come out with an attacking mentality; but in all fairness, this is another game Melbourne can and should win.

My tip: Melbourne 3, Adelaide 1

Your tip?

Ah, the plight of the back-up goalkeeper. Forced endlessly to watch from the bench, called in only when the first choice keeper is injured or red-carded. And unfortunately for Eugene Galekovic, the Melbourne Victory’s 2nd goalkeeper, first choice Michael Theoklitos has been in excellent form and perfect condition this year.

It all started very promising for Galekovic, who was Australia’s first-choice keeper at the Athens Olympics in 2004. After a disappointing stint at Portuguese club Beira Ma, where he rarely appeared as part of the first team, Galekovic returned home for the A-League’s inaugural season. He made his début for the Melbourne Victory in their first match. Throughout the season, Ernie Merrick rotated between Galekovic and Theoklitos, with neither keeper ever gaining the upper-hand.

By the time August 2006 came along, something had obviously turned in favour of Theoklitos, who played the first 12 matches straight and kept a clean sheet in 6 of those. Galekovic only saw his way into the team when Theo picked up an injury. After making 11 appearances in season 1, he made only 4 appearances in season 2. He is yet to play a game in season 3.

Galekovic is a classic example of why a reserve league running alongside the A-League could be vital for the development of players. As I argued when I wrote about Evan Berger, simply training players off the field isn’t going to develop them into better players. Players need competitive game time.

Read more about Eugene Galekovic:

• Eugene Galekovic on Wikipedia
• Galekovic profile on Melbourne Victory website

A couple of days behind the news perhaps, but having waited a few days, it’s fascinating to behold the fallout from the match. It was always going to be hotly contested whether Corica deserved to go off. Culina has only barely restrained his annoyance, but let out just enough to make sure everyone knew he wasn’t happy; “Please don’t ask me questions about the referee; I can’t afford to pay the fine“.  Meanwhile Sydney media has been keen to exploit the controversy. Sydney Morning Herald ran a rather blinkered opinion piece (not filed under opinion, but let’s face it – it was opinion) making claims that Steve Corica was “one of the fairest players in the country”. Puhleeeease…. come back to earth! Corica may well be a fair player, but as Mike Salter from The Football Tragic rightly points out, Corica had already been sent off twice in A-league history – how many other players can you think of that have had 3 red cards in the history of this competition?

Culina said he felt most sorry for the fans. Well Branko, don’t blame that on the referee. Corica made a rash challenge that was undeniably high and quite arguably studs-up and dangerous. Hold him accountable if anyone. But really, was the entertainment value compromised? Sure, it’s never nice losing a match – that always hurts. But, as many Melbourne fans will be able to relate, being down a man is not a sure recipe for a bad night’s entertainment. Continue reading →

Sydney FC 0, Melbourne Victory 1 (our report)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyFGuv6cWxk[/youtube]

The Melbourne Victory takes on Sydney FC tonight in what will be an intriguing and important match between the A-League’s two Grand Final winners.

Meanwhile, the current season’s top runners, the Newcastle Jets and the Central Coast Mariners, will battle it out on Sunday in Newcastle. Whatever the result there, a win in Sydney will push the Victory into a strong top 3 spot – potentially within game of taking first place.

But Sydney are tied with Melbourne on points, so they have as much to play for.

I made it clear before the season started that I did not fancy Sydney’s chances this year. My reasoning boiled down to the simple fact that Branko Culina’s team would struggle for goals. Sure enough, the first 4 weeks of the season indicated that I had tipped correctly, as Sydney dropped to the bottom of the table with 2 draws and 2 losses. But the past two weeks has seen a revival of sorts, Sydney pulling off consecutive 1-0 victories over Queensland and Newcastle.

Melbourne also seems to have been empowered by its last two matches (which, strangely enough, were also with Queensland and Newcastle). This season has been patchy: it took us 6 weeks to register a win, and even then it was only after a solid 60 minutes of hit-and-miss football that the team really started to get some semblance of rhythm. After 4 goals from the past two matches, Melbourne fans have a cause to be optimistic.

After a bad spell with injuries, both teams will be enjoying close to full-strength squads. Culina has Tony Popovic at his disposal; and Brazilian star Juninho has been back from injury since round 5. Meanwhile, Ernie Merrick will be pleased to have Kevin Muscat and Danny Allsopp back in full strength, after both were doubtful for last week’s encounter with Queensland. Daniel Piorkowski’s injury has turned out less serious than feared, so he can be expected in the line-up. Matthew Kemp has also been recalled to the squad, begging what seems to be the weekly question: How will Merrick organise the midfield? With Muscat, Brebner, Keenan, Kemp, Hernandez, Broxham and Caceres at his disposal, coach Merrick has a range of options at his fingertips.

This is a tough game to predict. Frankly, while I didn’t rate Sydney much at the start of the season, they have come off two solid wins and look like they might just upset my pre-season predictions. But Melbourne also approaches this game on a high. If the Victory can manage to play with the sort of intensity and fervour that characterised the final 25 minutes of play at Telstra Dome last Friday night, I’m tipping they’ll be able to topple Sydney – and by a decent margin.

My prediction: Sydney FC 1, Melbourne Victory 3

Your prediction?

When he first signed Leandro Love, Ernie Merrick had this to say about the Brazilian striker: The third striker really has to know he’s a back-up striker, so that’s why we’ve gone for a 21-year-old who’s . . . pretty fit and ready to go.

What a difference six weeks makes.

Continue reading →

In an attempt to keep up to date with the never ending stream of news and opinions posted about the Melbourne Victory, we’ve started a Melbourne Victory group on Newsvine.

Currently we list the latest news about Melbourne Victory in our right hand column. Unfortunately, sometimes the items there are out of date, irrelevant or duplicates of the same story. That’s because it is an automatically generated feed from Google News. We plan to remove that automated news feed and instead list the news from Newsvine.

The Newsvine Group is free for anyone to join and contribute news to. You can find it at http://mvfc.newsvine.com