Melbourne Victory coach Ernie Merrick was left frustrated that Sydney FC were not penalised more heavily for a string of “blatant professional fouls” in Saturday night’s A-League grand final.
The Sky Blues won a epic match 4-2 in a penalty shootout at Etihad Stadium after the teams were locked 1-1 at the end of extra time.
Merrick thought the Victory could have pinched the match in normal time after Adrian Leijer’s 81st-minute goal cancelled out a 63rd-minute effort from Sydney striker Mark Bridge.
Leijer and young striker Aziz Behich both missed gilt-edged chances to score a winner in the dying minutes although Chris Payne also blew an easy opportunity at the other end for Sydney.
Merrick acknowledged that the home side badly missed their alltime leading scorer Archie Thompson, who was stretchered off in the 12th minute with a serious knee injury.
And even though five Sydney players – Bridge, Karol Kissel, Stephan Keller, Simon Colosimo and Sebastian Ryall – were handed yellow cards by referee Strebre Delovski, Merrick thought the match officials could have cracked down harder.
“It’s pretty hard to play our best, losing Archie for a start,” said Merrick.
“I thought we played some good football.
“We had a problem in midfield which we fixed quite well at halftime and I thought the second half we played pretty well.
“I was disappointed we didn’t win the game in 90 minutes.
“I was a bit frustrated that every time we had an attack there would be blatant professional fouls so we had to stop and start again.
“There weren’t many yellow cards being handed out which was disappointing, but what can I say.”
Merrick said it would be difficult for his exhausted lineup to back up physically for Tuesday night’s Asian Champion s League clash in Japan against Kawasaki Frontale.
“This is just one of many setbacks we’ve had this year and we still got to the grand final despite all the setbacks we had,” he said.
“This bunch will pick themselves up mentally, but physically is another question.”
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Football Person 2 said | March 21st 2010 @ 10:43am | Report comment
Sydney played to win and they did so ……………….
Roger said | March 21st 2010 @ 11:01am | Report comment
Good overview John.
Football Person 2, Sydney played dirty, very dirty. Enjoy your hollow win.
Football Person 2 said | March 21st 2010 @ 5:31pm | Report comment
if your referring to me enjoying the win………… im a Brisbane supporter I just believe in winning
to be honest i didn’t notice much perhaps I wasn’t paying close enough attention.
DiCanio said | March 21st 2010 @ 6:18pm | Report comment
Merrick has to say this
I mean it couldn’t possibly be his fault. It couldn’t possibly be that he was out managed
no it was those nasty Sydney Hackers who won the fair play award. What a horrible bunch with their… one red card all season, and their world reknowned hitmen like Kevin Muscut… oh… wait…. he doesn’t play for the sky blues does he.
Get over it Merrick. Maybe if your club could provide a decent pitch, your your captain didn’t spend all night yelling at the referee, or your players didn’t get caught out celebrating disallowed goals then someone would care,
The final analysis is your a sloppy sloppy manager who relies on big named individuals rather then discipline and tactics. Could it be that when AT went off your one solution was to go to ground anywhere 30 meters out so pieman Hernandez could provide you with your only attacking threat?
So blame everyone but yourself and your team for your failures. It’s the typical attitude of a loser.
Rob said | March 21st 2010 @ 8:02pm | Report comment
Merrick is just a whineing twat.
Both sides were pretty robust in their challenges but only Sydney seemed to get pulled up for it. Melbourne were all elbows, Muscat the usual disgrace, Kruse and Hernandez tripping over shadows and rolling on the ground screaming….but of course thats just gamesmanship isnt it Ernie.