As partisan roars rumbled around AAMI Park, and boos from both sets of supporters met in the middle, pouring fuel on a derby contest already sparking and crackling in furious delight, the Melbourne Victory did what most teams have struggled to this season – frighten Melbourne City.
That Kevin Muscat sent his team out to counter-attack against City is no revelation, as most teams have had that approach in mind when they’ve encountered Tim Cahill and co. But the mix of passivity and activity, of disruptive, outward aggression and self-contained, positive planning that Muscat arranged proved the perfect way to challenge City, a team that have rarely looked so tilted by the counter-punch as they did on Saturday.
Sydney FC, in their last two meetings with City, have focused far to closely on spoiling City’s attacking system, fouling and pressing with the primary intent of interference, rather than in support of their own attacking ambitions. Here Victory showed the Sky Blues how it should be done, and their gameplan was built around James Troisi.
Had Besart Berisha, on Saturday, summoned some of the lethal efficiency that saw him smack home his hat-trick against the Wanderers last week, then the contest might well have been over within half an hour. His profligacy meant that the Victory were forced to struggle back from a goal behind, a goal predictably delivered with venom from the head of Tim Cahill.
But before Cahill’s opener, as early as the third minute, Troisi was tearing right through City’s suddenly feeble-looking midfield. Having eased back, inviting Fernando Brandan to dribble up the left wing, the Victory crowded the winger out, forcing a turnover.
Troisi, having trotted back to add to the numbers, was then released, and had to show all of his athletic power to stride away cleanly from Nicolas Colazo, the fleetness of foot to slip the ball through the legs of Neil Kilkenny, and the prophetic technique to curl the ball into the path of Berisha. It was – or should have been had Berisha not screwed his shot wide – a perfect counter-attacking sequence.
The pressure Troisi – and to a slightly lesser extent, Marco Rojas – would then go on to apply on the until-now untested midfield pairing of Luke Brattan and Kilkenny showed just how much damage a powerful, skillful No. 10 like him can wreak against City in that advanced central area.
The series of events that led to Victory’s equaliser were punctuated by a number of varied interventions by Troisi; first, a neat flick with the toe, spooning the ball to Carl Valeri before Bruce Kamau’s leg could jut out and spoil. Then, having continued his run forward, he darted intelligently between the City lines, signalling to receive the ball and showing the poise to turn threateningly towards goal.
Finally, having shifted the ball wide to Jason Geria, Troisi somehow out-jumped the towering Ruon Tongyik when Geria’s half-cleared cross came tumbling out of the sky, nodding the ball straight into the loving feet of Rojas, who slotted home. Again, a rare mixture of technique, forethought and brawn was on show.
It was not coincidental that Troisi found himself at the centre of multiple counter-attacking efforts in the first half. Later, with City preparing a free kick won by Brandan on the left, Troisi was positioning himself in the striker’s spot, glued to the shoulder of the last City defender, on the halfway line.
When City’s set piece was cleared, Rojas speared a curling ball up the left hand channel, straight into the path of Troisi’s muscular run. Another nutmeg was indulged in, and the Victory were nearly in again. Muscat will have asked for this, for his weaponised No. 10 to be locked and spring-loaded in situations where City were lulled into a false sense of security.
City were rattled by all of this. They didn’t quite know whether to try and harry Troisi out of the game, or compress the space in front of him and cut off his passing options. On one occasion they did neither, and Joshua Rose was seen lurching horribly between Troisi and Rojas as a Victory clearance was punched in Troisi’s direction from the left flank.
Troisi simply took the ball down on his chest and struck a volleyed pass over Rose to Rojas, who eventually worked his way into another promising shooting position.
A sharp touch from Troisi, applied first-time, in the 42nd minute allowed Rojas to cross for Berisha, only for the Albanian to miscontrol. Another unbridled surge down the middle, after Lawrence Thomas had saved Bruno Fornaroli’s twisting volley, ended this time with a poor decision to shoot.
A neat, cushioned Troisi header into space in front of Berisha won the Victory a corner with just a minute or so left in the first half. He was the most active player in that opening period, and the chances he – directly, or in concert with others – created were enough for Victory to be unhappy that they entered the break with scores level.
Troisi’s touch map spanned the full width of the pitch, and the roaming brief he was evidently given continued into the second half. As the game became haggard, Troisi’s energy rarely wavered, and – although his activity in attack faded somewhat – he was seen making blocks, clearances and tackles deep in his own half in the final quarter of the match. Eventually, Berisha was presented with a chance he couldn’t contrive to scupper – albeit one that might have seen his kneecap stray into an offside position – and the Victory ended the match deserved winners.
Muscat’s game-plan was designed to utilise Troisi’s full, gleaming arsenal to torch the City central midfielders. Valeri and Bozanic provided the stable platform behind, and Kilkenny and Brattan wilted. Troisi created more chances than Fornaroli, Cahill and Brandan managed as a group, and the teams that plan on troubling City over the remainder of the season should take note of the Victory’s approach.
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