The Melbourne Heart showed encouragement in their first time on the big stage, but Everton’s better finishing earned them a 2-0 win in Wednesday night’s soccer friendly at Etihad Stadium.
Jack Rodwell and Louis Saha scored for the English Premier League side, but it was by no means doom for the A-League’s newest club, as the Heart strung together some good passages and had a handful of opportunities.
The Heart’s performance — this was just their fourth game as a team — would have given the crowd of 19,261 good reason to think they will perform well in their debut A-League season.
But apart from Josip Skoko’s long-range effort in the first half and Eli Babalj’s volley in the second, which both drew good saves from Everton goalkeeper Iain Turner, the Heart lacked the killer finishing needed.
Big Dutchman Gerald Sibon played well as a focal point in attack but scoffed a golden chance early when he beat Turner one-out but shot wide.
Babalj and Jason Hoffman also found space in the second half but both puts their shots straight to the opposition goalkeeper.
In contrast, Saha made amends for a penalty miss in the opening minutes when he finished beautifully on his left foot on the hour.
Rodwell gave the visitors the lead when he knocked in Seamus Coleman’s cross in the 34th minute.
Everton’s win was the second on their pre-season tour of Australia, following last Saturday night’s 1-0 win over Sydney FC.
Socceroos star Tim Cahill spent the first half on the bench for Everton and had little impact when brought on at half-time, although the Heart’s defence was generally solid.
However the Heart made a shocking start as referee Matthew Breeze awarded Everton a penalty early, for Rutger Worm’s challenge on Coleman, but Saha put the shot wide of the net.
Cahill was given a warm ovation as he left the ground wearing a Heart top.
Heart coach John van ‘t Schip was encouraged by the performance given it was the first hit-out for the likes of Skoko, Michael Beauchamp and Alex Terra.
“Totally it was a good performance,” he said.
“In the first two minutes we were a little but lucky that they missed the penalty, but after that we got into the game, we started playing the ball around and I think we created a few good possibilities.”
Van ‘t Schip was confident the Heart would have most of their first-choice players available for the August 5 season opener, including John Aloisi and Matt Thompson, who are recovering from injuries.
Everton manager David Moyes said the game lacked the intensity of the clash with Sydney, but was satisfied with his team’s hit-out and impressed by the Heart.
“The coach looks as if he’s done a good job in the way he wants them to play,” he said.
“With a Dutch coach you can see a Dutch style to their play and that’s not always easy to introduce quickly.”
Everton will complete their tour against the Brisbane Roar on Saturday night, but Cahill will not play as he attends a teammate’s wedding.
The Special One
Guest
How can the pitches be any good if they play league/AFL on them all the time. God only knows how they will fix them for a World Cup in time during winter.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
A couple of major differences b/w MVFC v Juventus & Heart v Everton 1. Juventus game was on a FRIDAY NIGHT and in May. Everton game was on a Wednesday night in July and it just happens we are experiencing the wettest and coldest winter in the past 15 years! 2. MVFC had played 3 seasons and won a Championship/Premiership double by the time it played Juventus. Heart have not yet played even 1 game in the HAL. 3. Tim Cahill played for 45 minutes. We are lucky he even bothered to play. All Everton players, who were involved in the World Cup were given a well-deserved holiday. The following are the WC players missing from Everton's team: 1 GK Ján Mucha (Slovakia) 4 DF Joseph Yobo (Nigeria) 5 DF John Heitinga (Netherlands - played in the final ... and was red-carded!) 20 MF Steven Pienaar (South Africa) 22 FW Yakubu Aiyegbeni (Nigeria) 24 GK Tim Howard (USA) Therefore, it's a testament to Timmy's commitment, loyalty and desire to not disappoint Aussie Football fans that he has given up his holiday to come to Australia in the middle of winter to play meaningless practice matches. Finally, no Football fan wants to play at either: a) Etihad - which is voted the worst playing surface by HAL players (and AFL players seem to be pretty dissatisfied also) b) MCG which is the worst venue I've ever been to watch a Football match. I'd rather watch football matches at Olympic Park than either of the above 2 venues and cannot wait for the contract b/w MVFC and Etihad to expire. Andy has done Football fans around the world a huge favour by locking WC games out of Etihad Stadium!
AndyRoo
Roar Guru
Further from Moyes the Everton Manager Moyes’ English Premier League club has played two of its three games on a pre-season tour of Australia, and while satisfied with the stadiums he was critical of the playing surfaces at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium and Etihad Stadium in Melbourne. “You’ve got great stadiums, albeit your pitches aren’t very good,” he said on Wednesday night, after Everton beat the Melbourne Heart 2-0 at Etihad Stadium. “That’s the one disappointment coming here.
AndyRoo
Roar Guru
What a quaint notion to actually care about the surface MC* :) Call me cynical but I bet it's 100% related to $$$ and Docklands offering a much better deal. * I wish you were right...but doubt it.
Al
Guest
Pretty good considering the lack of advertising or publicity made for the game.
Michael C
Roar Guru
completely agreed - - - why the AFL has to put up with these silly 'exhibition' matches in the middle of the season when there's a 100% govt funded dedicated rectangular stadium sitting doing nothing.........just plain ridiculous, although - - the only thing I can figure is that RL want's long 'soft' grass, soccer doesn't. (nor does AFL for that matter!!). I can only presume that'd be a factor?? btw - MVFC vs Juventus drew over 40,000. Not sure how to read a 20,000 crowd with Everton playing and Timmy Cahill on show??
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
I actually went to the game last night. 1. After 80 seconds, Everton waltzed into the Heart penalty box and was given a penalty that was not converted and, for the next 10 minutes, Heart looked like they were going to get smashed. 2. Thereafter, I was impressed by the Heart style of play out of defence and through the midfield - I don't reckon I saw Bolton, even once, clear the ball with a long kick. Every Bolton disposal was a measured pass or throw to a defender and the ball was calmly played through the midfield and Heart then looked good in patches, but they could have kept playing for another month and Heart never looked like scoring. 3. There is no way that crowd was 19k. I've been to most MVFC's home matches at Etihad over the past 4 years and I know what a 20k crowd looks like. The crowd last night was, perhaps, a bit more than attended the MVFC ACL games earlier this year. The whole of Level 3 was closed; and the wings on Level 2 and Level 1 (the Premium seats) were virtually empty. The real crowd was 10k at the most; perhaps Ian Collins accidentally inserted a "1" in front of the real crowd figure of 9,261.
MVDave
Guest
I believe this was the promoters choice (stadium) not the clubs. Nevertheless 20,000 on a rainy Wednesday night is fantastic. If they had played it in the new stadium l would have been tempted and l'm sure there would have been an even bigger crowd. Well done to MH as it sounds like they put in a decent shift against the Blues. In future l think the promoters will realise that the best place for these games is in the new stadium...interesting that the VPL GF will be held there (as well as the womens GF).
The Special One
Guest
Why build a 250 million dollar rectangular stadium if you are going to use etihad for these sort of games?