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Shorn of a trio of key assets – two first-choice defenders and a midfield maestro – the Perth Glory were forced to prepare with pained expressions for the chore of facing Melbourne Victory.
The Victory are a ravenous team that enjoys nothing more than to skewer a wounded foe.
For Perth, Rhys Williams was suspended, Diego Castro and Josh Risdon were injured, and Kenny Lowe’s team were reeling, still nursing the bruises that last week’s loss to Central Coast. That match, as it happened, was also the Mariners’ first clean sheet in yonks.
The Glory back four was playing together for the first time, and it quickly became clear that Perth had planned to attack only fleetingly on the break.
Lowe was seen early in the match gesticulating wildly, screaming for his players to pass it swiftly and directly to the wingers, who had been told to dash up the flanks as soon as the ball was turned over by Melbourne.
The Glory made an astonishing 51 long passes in the first half – which made up about a third of their total passes – with most of them sprayed out wide from deep central areas.
With Rostyn Griffiths standing in defensive midfield like some granite golem, the opening skirmishes in that area were troubling the Victory attackers. Rattled, the Victory were guilty of spurning the clear chances they managed to force through the great yellow wall before them, up to the very front and centre of which they were basically allowed to stroll unbridled.
The passing chart of one team filled the negative space of the other:
To defend so deeply, and work almost exclusively on the counter is such a high-risk strategy. It invites immense pressure and then, having resisted the forays, depending on just a handful of difficult actions that must be executed perfectly, and in sequence, in order to score.
But, as it happened, the Glory were richly rewarded with the opening goal, a finely crafted counter attacking move, starting with Marinković’s instinctively slapped pass, that curled with ideal weight into the path of the streaking Harold. He crossed for Keogh, who smashed home with the sort of unerring ruthlessness a counter-attacking striker must be brimming with.
Lowe celebrated with the sort of furious satisfaction of a man fighting against his circumstances with gritted teeth, contorted under back-breaking pressure.
His team’s lead, however, wouldn’t last the half, as Besart Berisha equalised a few minutes before the break.
The stage was set for the remainder of the match; it was unlikely that Perth would arrange another textbook counter-attack, or that Melbourne wouldn’t eventually bust through the Perth barricade.
The assumptions as to the former were right, but the latter did not eventuate. The second period saw Melbourne unable to score, despite rattling in nine shots, creating six chances, managing to get 32 balls into the Perth box, and finish the match with nine corners.
It was, in short, a bombardment on the Perth goal, and the Glory were indebted not just to their own defensive efforts, but to some wayward finishing, sloppy offsides, and, in the final minute, the woodwork, as James Troisi’s looping shot struck the upright.
Lowe was shouting and wriggling on the sideline until the final whistle. His enthusiasm is infectious, and the energy and industry shown by his beleaguered squad here was vital, an extension Lowe’s own flailing limbs.
The point they left with felt like three, and although the Victory had enough chances to win a handful of matches here, you can’t fault Perth for setting up with a modest plan in mind, and carrying it out as best they could.
Perth’s situation at the moment has left the skeleton of the team fractured and dangling, with only a few bones intact and connected; it was that loose connection that carried them in this match, starting with Dino Djulbic and Griffiths’ stolidity, via Nebojša Marinković’s velveteen feet, quickened by the scorching pace of Chris Harold, and capped off by the venom of Keogh.
As for the Victory, Kevin Muscat said this after the match:
“We can’t be too critical. It was a night for us when we weren’t our sharpest in front of goal. We hit the woodwork a few times, and threw everything at them. All we can do in those situations is work to get the opportunities, but then the tactics doesn’t have the last pass.”
Marco Rojas was exceptional, passing with success on both sides of the park, assisting Berisha’s goal, and creating five unique chances. His return has fully compensated for the loss of Gui Finkler, and he leads the league in assists.
Perth must survive this harrowing period. This was a hardy – and lucky – point grabbed.