Heart make promising debut but still go down to Mariners
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By Davidde Corran, 6 Aug 2010 Davidde Corran is a Roar Expert
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Melbourne Heart's Michel Beauchamp tackles Daniel McBreen from the Central Coast Mariners. AAP Image/ Joe Castro
So now Melbournians have a choice. Or at least another choice. For five years, the Victory has been the only option for football fans in Melbourne who want to follow a top-flight domestic side. Beyond that, fans were forced out to the Victorian Premier League or home to their TV sets to watch European football.
Ironically, against the Central Coast Mariners on Thursday night, all those elements came together to form the Heart.
There were A-League veterans, Victorian Premier League stars and players with a European pedigree in their starting 11.
Mid-week football is still an uncomfortable prospect for the self-proclaimed sporting capital of Australia (and sometimes the world) so a crowd of 11,050 for a brand new club is a reasonable affair. Even compared with the Victory’s inaugural attendance of just over 17,960 five years ago and their season opener last year of 18,855 also on a Thursday night.
According to Heart backroom staff, the crowd figure was their first victory. A key question now is if they can sustain and then build on that.
Heart’s “brand” of football, a style and point they’ve been keen to make at every opportunity over the last few months, will play a large part in that.
Last night, after a strong start where Heart were able to keep possession easily for the first ten minutes, the Mariners began to press tighter and John Van’t Schip’s men failed to find penetration.
The Mariners were well organised defensively and it was telling that most of the debutants’ best chances came from turnovers rather then build up play.
Despite an increased intensity, and desperation, the Heart failed to find that crucial first goal, with the game ending in a 1-0 win for the Mariners, thanks to a first half header from captain Alex Wilkinson.
As Van’t Schip said in the build up to the game, after only having his full squad together for three weeks, it will take time for the Dutch tactician to imprint his game plan on his players.
A big question will be whether the as yet undecided Melbourne public will be willing to wait.
Worryingly for those who have adopted the A-League’s newest club already, the Heart’s most highly rated players, the experienced Josip Skoko and youthful Eli Bablj, failed to deliver. Though there is still plenty of time left for that to change.
There were also some positives for the Heart though. Despite being 36-years-old Gerald Sibon showed why he’ll be crucial to his side’s ambitions this season and Brazilian forward Alex Terra showed some willing glimpses.
After months of build up and hype the Heart has finally made it’s competitive debut. Unfortunately it only provided teasers, rather then answers to the questions about the long and short-term future of Melbourne’s “second” club.
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Cooter Johnson said | August 6th 2010 @ 4:17am | Report comment
No matter what die hard football fans want to try to dress that game up as, the standard was absolutely woeful. The touch of the players was frequently and monotonously appalling and the amount of poor touches and mis-directed passes leading to lost ball was unfathomable. I want the A league and any new club to prosper but it must be admitted that the standard of football in that game was park grade, and it will be a long time before we can look ourselves in the mirror and say that the technical competency of the average A League player is what we would hope.
If Simon Colosimo is a fringe Socceroo then we are in big trouble. He looked slow, criminally clumsy, his distribution was poor and some of his mis-directed long balls must have even the biggest Lucas Neill critic cringing.
I am just dismayed that the press can dress this up as anything than a match between two groups of blokes who are very lucky to be professional sportsman playing on live TV, it was that bad.
I hope the Heart improve, the two imported guys upfront looked like they will have a few days in the sun (as opposed to the blond bloke who got hooked) and the substitutes at least had a run at the opposition rather than passing sideways for 5 minutes before losing the ball or hoofing it under pressure.
As for the Mariners, there is very little that separates them from a rugby league team. They just bash it up the middle and try to agitate and intimidate the opposition. A poor advertisement for the top tier of club football in our country.
rovers2011 said | August 6th 2010 @ 8:40am | Report comment
you do realise this is their first competitive hit-out? A coach can’t wave a magic wand and create cohesion so early in a club’s history. Take your point about the Mariners style over previous seasons, but they are a club rebuilding with a promising new squad. Save the judgments for a later point in the season i reckon.
MVDave said | August 6th 2010 @ 7:00am | Report comment
Cooter…first game of the season and Hearts have only had their full squad together for 3 weeks and are a brand new team so l think you are way too harsh… or do you have another agenda? Hearts will get a lot better working and playing together. You can watch any code and the early games of the season have plenty of mistakes. CCM were defensive and solid, playing to a game plan which was helped by their early goal.
Forgetting that… the real winners are football fans of Victoria…what a fantastic stadium! Sitting at one end was no problem to seeing action at the other, the surface (why would you ever go back to Etihad?) magnificent, the atmosphere with 11,000 brilliant (MV have sold around 17,000 season tickets already). It is truly what the game needed here to take it to the next level and beyond. l will be back to watch games there even when MV arent playing…it is that good.
MH had many thousands of fans wearing colors, have around 4,000 season ticket holders already (MV had 7,000 in their first year) and as the season progresses and they win some games, will get stronger both on and off the field.
Midfielder said | August 6th 2010 @ 7:31am | Report comment
Cooter
Mate … grow up for Gods sake…. the match was poor by Baca standards …BUT by Australian football standards …NSL…A-League … with teams wages less than 2 million… it was OK…
In fact I tho it was OK…I enjoyed it …
Mariners and a RL team… and you want to judge football … mate your understanding and mine are miles apart…if anyone was hoofing the ball upfield it was the Heart..
But as is all reporting of Mariner matches .. it is never how we play other than physical .. its why the other team lost… we get use to it.. and our banner is … Nobody rates us.. we don’t care…
Back to the game it was It a decent match with Heart showing signs of they could be a force… the Mariners short passing game down the side was nice to see and with Ollie & weeMac their will only get better… Matty had a great game and I hope GA keeps him dropping back into a midfield roving role in defense he played a role that Holeman plays for Australian in many ways in forcing the attack to protected parts of the field … clever play by GA IMO…
All I can say Davidde is right now … we are———
Top of the Table
Top of the Table
Top of the TABLEEEEEEEEEEE
Mals said | August 6th 2010 @ 9:19am | Report comment
Well said Midfielder & a good 1st up win for the Mariners last night.
I’m looking forward to this A league season. My son is playing his 1st season of football in the Central Coast district so he has his free season ticket (he’s really excited) to Mariners home games. Being a football fan (yep like many Aussies i follow an EPL team) who has only taken a passing interest in the A league previously, i look forward to taking my son to games at the excellent stadium in Gosford & will support the Mariners with him.
Davidde Corran said | August 6th 2010 @ 10:29am | Report comment
Haha! I certainly can’t deny you that Midfielder!
In all seriousness though the big test for the Mariners will be at their first home game and how they manage when it’s the opposition who are defending deep and giving them the ball to use.
Defensively though they were exceptional. Arnie has learned a lot in that area. The use of Matt Simon as a false no10 was terribly negative but extremely effective against Skoko. Arnie was also very gracious in victory with the press which is good to see.
Danny_Mac said | August 6th 2010 @ 3:27pm | Report comment
I dont know if negative is the right way to describe the tactic, it is more damaging to their aspirations to change that “nobody rates us” line (Banner is classic btw!). Its what i like to call bolton syndrome. stifle the opposition’s key man and you can dictate the terms of the match. its not pretty, but any david coming up against a goliath has been doing it since greece won Euro 2004. Its not pretty to watch, but it works. The 2010 WC has been something of a vindication of “good, propper” football, but if Robben had have tied his laces properly, then the same tactics would have won again.
not that im suggesting that the Melbourne Heart are a goliath. I’m having a real case of Deja Vu from last season with Gold Coast United. Both teams recruited well, but rely on a few key players and the depth isn’t there.
The front trio looked okay, but will take a bit of time to gel, that is to be expected. I think that the real concerning thing is that Arnold identified Skoko as the lynchpin and shut him down, and in so doing shut down the only link from defence to attack.
Davidde Corran said | August 6th 2010 @ 4:44pm | Report comment
It was negative in that it was a move designed to negate rather then create. You can’t get much more defensive then taking the no10 position, a role that is creative, attacking and exciting, and turn it into a man marking role.
However I understand what you’re saying.
Smokygrayson said | August 6th 2010 @ 12:17pm | Report comment
Midfielder, I was surprised and encouraged by how much the mariners moved the ball around on the ground, even out of defense. Their skills on the ball seemed a lot better than Heart too. The move to use Matt Simon to pester Skoko worked an absolute treat. Skoko came off looking second rate. I would like to see how they play with Perez in there too.
Anthony P said | August 6th 2010 @ 7:39am | Report comment
Well said Cooter
Tom said | August 6th 2010 @ 7:41am | Report comment
A-league continue to push for more teams not considering that this will pull down the already woeful quality. The standard is embarrassing at times and is the main reason why I cannot get my football mates to games. In this case less is more…..
Realfootball said | August 6th 2010 @ 7:48am | Report comment
Cooter
Parts of the game were certainly woeful, but other passages were, I thought, of a high standard. Problem was that the good passages so often seemed to break down with a woeful mistake. Colosimo and Hefernan were both very poor last night – Colosimo, I agree, had a shocker. We have to give Heart time to gel.
It is clear, unfortunately, that Arnold’s Mariners are much the same as McKinna’s Mariners – crude, hard working spoilers, who will try to kick players like Skoko off the park. Like last season, they will come unstuck against the better sides. I expected more from them after all Arnold’s talk of a passing game. Bozanic was a major disappointment.
The Mariners won last night, but I suspect the next time they play Heart it may be a very different story. I had hoped that this season the Mariners would become something other than a crude stone axe of a team. Sadly, it’s business as usual at Central Coast.
Midfielder said | August 6th 2010 @ 8:50am | Report comment
Real
You did watch the game last night … suggest you take off those glasses and watch the real game… or better still watch the Baca V Real play each other every week…
Realfootball said | August 6th 2010 @ 9:48am | Report comment
Mid
I was a dispassionate viewer; you were not. I respectfully suggest that t’was not I with the glasses on.
Axel V said | August 6th 2010 @ 12:16pm | Report comment
Glasses only enhances a persons vision, not decreases it. So it’s not entirely a bad thing to have worn glasses and then comment on the game. 20/20 vision is better than 19/20!
Smokygrayson said | August 6th 2010 @ 12:23pm | Report comment
Real,
I too was a dispassionate viewer. But the Mariners touches were better in general. There were however some terrific passing sequences up front for Heart, including Sibon? and Terra that showed flashes of what they might do later in the season. Heart were very slow to get out of defense, with Colosimo walking the ball up the pitch at times and shouting, frustrated at their midfield because he had no-one to pass to. There were also a lot of fluffed passes which “gelling” won’t fix. Ball control skills for Heart will hopefully come as the season lengthens.
F****ing fantastic stadium.
Realfootball said | August 6th 2010 @ 3:23pm | Report comment
Brilliant stadium. Best in the country for football, no question.
Cpaaa said | August 6th 2010 @ 8:19am | Report comment
Watched the game and thought was good. Already the style of football looks different. Really impressed with Mariners, I hope Arnie does good there. Heart will take a few games before they get it, Skoko is the key. I was surprised to see a few floaters by heart but overall i like what i saw and they will become a strong side with confidence.
The crowd was a great sign of things to come, 11k thursday night and already red and whites occupy the stands.
The bubble is brilliant, finally a decent football stadium in Melbourne.
this year we will see a change in quality on the pitch, everything to look forward to
Mick said | August 6th 2010 @ 8:40am | Report comment
Not a bad game last night, but I think Heart are a victim of their own hype. Ok, I know it’s first game so you can’t expect too much, but has anyone given credit to the way CC played? They adapted to Heart’s free-flowing style of play and responded by shutting down their midfield. A goal helped to seal to the deal. 11,000 is a good turn out for an A-League game and it will be interesting to see how numbers through the gates progress/decline as the season goes on. Another problem still has me baffled-why two ‘Melbourne’ teams? Why was Heart not based somewhere in the greater Melbourne area (ie. Geelong), so you could actually differentiate between them and the Victory? Or is there just no support outside the city centre? Either way, the chances for a real rivalry would be even better then.
Danny_Mac said | August 6th 2010 @ 3:38pm | Report comment
It is actually a smart way to keep yourself open to anybody, more people will associate with the club if it isn’t regional specific. NQ Fury are a prime example of this, they pretty much cover everything North of Brisbane, but if they were Townsville, they would isolate a number of football areas (Cairns is particularly strong) in that area. Sounds silly, but it is actually true. There is nothing to stop the heart pushing into the geelong market (and with skoko i would be very surprised if they didn’t) but labelling them as a Geelong team would restrict them from picking up fans outside of that area, and i think they will be targeting disillusioned victory fans as much as new-comers…
Lu said | August 6th 2010 @ 8:59am | Report comment
only 90 mintues into the new season and the haters are already out.. nothing new..
Good to see the new season has started..with all the quaility on the field, Heart will only get better..
Ken Bailey's Probation Officer said | August 6th 2010 @ 2:32pm | Report comment
It’s got nothing to do with being a heter – if you think the level of football on display last night was acceptable, then good luck to you.
Melbourne Heart were very much more disappointing than the Mariners, who aren’t really a footballing side and came with a spoiling game plan which they executed very well, and very professionally. But that’s about as much positivity as I can muster. A game played for large periods of time at only a little above walking pace, and yet still strewn with basic errors, leaden first touches and terrible passing, is not much of an advert for the game in this country.
Early days yet yes, but really if this is indicative of the standard we’ll be seeing for the rest of the season then I think the FFA is going to see another drop in crowd figures overall this season.
AndyRoo said | August 6th 2010 @ 2:38pm | Report comment
It always picks up after they all have 5 or 6 games under their belt. It was a much better game than last years opener
I would be interested how Sydney perform because they have had the best preparation of the lot.
Tom said | August 6th 2010 @ 9:29am | Report comment
Heart looked like they were trying to play attractive football, but don’t quite have the quality or fluency to turn possession into consistent scoring chances.
Apart from the result, the really concerning thing is how many players failed to perform. Worm was laughably bad. Marrone and Heffernan got enormous amounts of space but failed to do anything with it, and both made bad defensive errors. Terra had a couple of bright moments but seemed to be playing for himself, which is a really worrying sign for an attacking midfielder. Skoko got frustrated easily.
Central Coast were awful, frankly. Sure they defended well, but their only chances came from defensive errors and set pieces. They will struggle against better organised teams.