Melbourne Victory has secured their first win of the 2010/11 A-league season thanks to a 1-0 victory over Gold Coast United at Skilled Park on Sunday afternoon.
Robbie Kruse scored the only goal of the game in the 20th minute, after he got on the end of a magnificent through ball from Carlos Hernandez and controlled well before putting it past former Victory keeper Glen Moss from a tight angle.
Victory was in desperate need of the three points, and once they took they lead they were content to sit back and defend. They eventually held on for the rest of the game, to grab their first three points and clean sheet of the season.
A rather youthful Gold Coast outfit found it hard to break through the Victory defence, with the absence of Shane Smeltz hard felt. Gold Coast are reported to be in talks with Bruce Djite though, to replace Smeltz pending his transfer to Gençlerbirliği goes through.
Though United coach Miron Bleiberg felt that the team missed Joel Porter more than Shane Smeltz.
“We struggled up front today and although people will say we missed Shane Smeltz today, I think we actually missed Joel Porter more,” said Bleiberg after the game.
“Sometimes miracles happen when you play your young players but today it wasn’t to be for us.
“We knew we were a bit underdone in attack, especially as we were facing such an experienced Melbourne team, but fair play to them (Victory).
“They scored their goal, killed the game and we didn’t have the firepower to break them down.
“We had our chances in the first half but struggled to create much in the second. We missed a target-man to hold the ball for us and bring other people into the play.
“Melbourne decided to defend what they had and all credit to them because they did it well. They are an experienced team and it showed today.”
Both teams started the game fairly even with not many chances being created.
The game was brought to life though in the 20th minute thanks to a brilliant pass from Hernandez, and finish from Kruse. Hernandez spotted the run of Robbie Kruse and played a through ball to him, with the striker then going around Glen Moss and finishing brilliantly from a tight angle.
The Gold Coast nearly equalized just a minute later, but a poor first touch in the area from James Brown ended the attack.
Gold Coast again came close to an equalizer just before the half hour mark. Michael Petkovic parried Adam Traore’s well driven cross, and Gol Gol Mebrathu could only head wide from right in front.
Two minutes later Petkovic made a fantastic save from a Jason Culina volley to keep the Victory in front.
Melbourne Victory then had its best chance to add to their lead, but Carlos Hernandez sent his free-kick just over the crossbar.
After the break Melbourne looked much more organized, and Gold Coast’s chances came few and far between. The lack of forward presence was felt, with Culina not receiving the service he needed.
Gold Coast kept searching for a goal, but it was Victory who nearly got one. Muscat’s shot in the 70th minute was deflected, and Leigh Broxham rather comically chested the ball away from goal rather than heading it in.
Melbourne Victory were in control though for the rest of the game and the Gold Coast never really created a good chance to score.
After two draws and a loss to the start of the season, Merrick was relieved to finally get off the mark, and that the win was thoroughly deserved.
“It’s never an easy game up here. We were just happy to control the game from position.”
“We had the possession, more shots on target and more corners and I just felt that whoever I brought on would do a good job.” Merrick said.
The Victory now travel to Gosford next week to take on the Mariners, whilst the Gold Coast have a week off.
Kurt
Roar Pro
The great thing re. Jimbo is that as you soon as you call him out and point out his fabrications he goes missing completely! It sure is an easy way to get rid of him from a discussion.
Kurt
Roar Pro
I don't have a problem with removing outliers from a statistical perspective but that works at both ends of the data range. So for example if you wanted to remove GC from the average calculations you could similarly argue that MV crowds should be removed as they are an excessively high abberation brought about by Melbourne's tendancy to produce much larger crowds than the national average. Either way is fine - either all crowds are calculated, or we drop off the highest and lowest.
Realfootball
Guest
Art I really hope I am wrong. I like the Heart, their coach and their players. I watch their games on the box and lhave all along hoped for their success. But 5000 people is not what we all hoped for. Against the League leaders. It was desperately disappointing and very worrying.
Art Sapphire
Guest
David, I just wanted to advise you of the 22k and 10k face book friends that the 2 clubs have and agree with rellum's observation. This is the humour free edition as the other one did not see the light of day. Thanks.
Art Sapphire
Guest
The author has replied to me and I have responded to him positively and its still being moderated. There is a first for everything.
Art Sapphire
Guest
Thanks David for the correction. I'm old enough to be your dad and the kids today love facebook. I just took a look at http://www.facebook.com/melbourneheartfc over 10k friends http://www.facebook.com/gomvfc over 22k friends Pretty good numbers for both clubs. Especially compared to other A-League clubs. As rellum said - the sky is falling club come out every week showing the classic symptoms of A.D.D
NY
Guest
Realfootball you are a little too much doom and gloom sometimes. Gold Coast I can understand. North Queensland and Melbourne Heart need to be given time.
David Manuca
Roar Rookie
October 2nd, you mean? ;) Melbourne Heart have got quite a few members, around 3-4,000. Of course it's not going to be as much as Victory's 17k plus, it it's still not a bad number. The Hearts current average attendance is 8k, which is nearly 2k less than the A-League average. The derby games will bring it up of course. I never thought a second A-League club in Melbourne will work, but I hope to be proven wrong.....
Rellum
Roar Guru
Most people I have seen at the games are in red and white. I think there are something like 5000 members, so the heart have a solid small core of fans that can only really go up. There are too many pessimists in this country. One thing goes wrong and they are calling the death knell of the club.
MVDave
Guest
Art Have seen both MH home games live and am actually surprised about the large number of fans wearing red and white. Thought there'd be more like me wearing some very fashionable dark blue with white trimming clobber ;)
Art Sapphire
Guest
realfootball - I accept your opinion on what's happening in Melbourne Heart but since you don't live here then I am afraid it's misplaced pessimism. Just wait until for the derby on October 3.
beaver fever
Guest
This is not about code wars, this is about pulling up a poster who continually presents false stats.
Realfootball
Guest
Who cares, Beaver? Really? This code war stuff is very repetitive and very dull. Round and round the arguments go, chasing their own tails.
beaver fever
Guest
Realfootball said "Kurt, it has to be said that those figures are being distorted by" ........ On this site there is only one person who reguarly distorts figures, either that, or in his hurry to portray Australian football in a bad light does not check them properly.
JamesP
Guest
Norm, we already covered this in another thread...
JamesP
Guest
Axel X - what do I have to be bitter and miserable about?
Axel V
Guest
thankyou, i am very balanced :D
beaver fever
Guest
What !!, you are so balanced, maybe you have a chip on each shoulder !!.
Axel V
Guest
ROFL! Wah wah wah JamesP, you sound like you have a chip on your shoulder, so bitter and miserable.
Realfootball
Guest
Kurt, it has to be said that those figures are being distorted by Gold Coast and North Queensland Fury. Which is not to say that the crowds are satisfactory (though it should be noted that this varies wildly from club to club) - competing with the AFL and NRL at the pointy ends of their seasons is always an extremely tough proposition - you only have to look at Melbourne Victory, who pulled considerably less than their membership to their last game. To gain an accurate picture of A-League average attendances this season by the end, I suspect that GCU and possibly the Fury too will need to be removed from the equation. There is no doubt FFA moved to fast into QLD. Losing Buckley looks to have been a good thing for the AFL, given his performance at FFA. As for Palmer, I would have thought his past record in business and politics should have indicated the need for caution. Unfortunately, it is looking ominously bleak for Melbourne Heart right now in terms of support. I was never in favour of this decision; it seemed to me a huge and unjustified gamble. I could see the logic, but it still amounted to a roll of the dice. Again, we come back to FFA and Ben Buckley. If FFA was a corporation, he would have been shown the door by now. Lowy is showing a high degree of forebearance. Perhaps he has no choice with the WC bid in train. I think we all need to rise above code point scoring. It would be a loss if any of our codes went under. We should celebrate our diversity. My feeling is that the round ball code has suffered from a number of factors over the past 2 years, including some awful football and a chronic lack of promotion. The football this season has been entertaining at the very least, and in most clubs the standard is sharply up. The promotion still isn't there, but I am optimistic that momentum will build regardless.