Australia’s most successful club comes into the regions most prestigious club competition looking to erase the bitter memories of their 2010 campaign, where they finished bottom of their group with only one win and a goal difference of -7.
This time it will be different.
Whereas last year Melbourne limped into the Champions League with injuries to key players such as Archie Thompson, Johnny Warren Medallist Carlos Hernandez and Billy Celeski hindering their progress.
This year the Victorians will be fielding their strongest ever side in Asia with the hope to progress to the second stage of the tournament for the first time. Melbourne Victory qualified for their third Asian Champions League after coming runners up to bitter rivals Sydney FC in both the minor premiership and championship in the 2009/10 season.
After being eliminated by the Gold Coast United in the second elimination final, Melbourne’s consolation prize will be entering this tournament without having to worry about their domestic league, and so Ernie Merrick will be able to better allocate his resources and make a real go for the ACL title.
The tournament also provides the much maligned Kevin Muscat, the club’s spiritual leader and arguably its greatest ever player, with the opportunity to sign off on a career which saw him spend the best part of a decade in the U.K, where he earned the title of being the ‘most hated man in Brittan’ due to his hard-man approach.
Melbourne’s first test comes against Gamba Osaka who also qualified for the tournament by coming runners up in their domestic league, Japan’s J-League. It will be the second time the two sides have been drawn together in the ACL, the first time coming in 2008 where Gamba took the honours in both legs, first defeating Melbourne 4-3 in an entertaining game at the Docklands before convincingly beating the Navy Blues 2-0 at the Osaka Expo Stadium.
Melbourne will go into the clash without Grant Brebner and play-maker Carlos Hernandez, who has recently lost favour with Merrick due to his inability to stay fit. Merrick will instead look to Costa Rican Marvin Angulo to be the creative force behind Melbourne’s attacks, and if his domestic form is anything to go by, the diminutive attacking midfielder will provide Gamba defenders with a real headache.
It’s in attack where Melbourne looks most dangerous, with a three pronged attack featuring Archie Thompson, Danny Allsopp and Socceroo Robbie Kruse all proven goal scorers both domestically and abroad. Robbie Kruse will be looking to rubber stamp his transfer overseas by having a big tournament, with the Melbourne striker having signed on with the Victory until the end of the ACL.
New signing Isaka Cernak will provide Melbourne with another attacking option off the bench, and if given the chance the Queenslander will be enthusiastic to prove himself to his new teammates and fans.
As good as they look in attack Melbourne will need their underperforming defence to step up against Gamab if they are to have any chance of stealing the points, with the main threat looking to come form Brazilian Adriano Ferreira Martins who scored 14 goals in 2010 for Gamba’s local rivals Cerezo Osaka.
Melbourne will also need to nullify the influence of Japanese international Yasuhito Endō, whose exploits in the Asian Cup helped Japan secure the trophy against Australia. The ‘maestro of Japan’, who has scored 7 goals in 24 appearances in the Champions League, is regarded as being technically excellent at set pieces, a sentiment which looks to haunt Melbourne as they have conceded most of their goals from set pieces in their recent domestic season.
On paper both sides look evenly matched with the game likely to be won in midfield, and it will present Merrick with the opportunity to use his tactical nous to try and extract the points against his Japanese nemesis.
It will be interesting to see whether Merrick uses Muscat in a holding midfield role in the absence of Brebner, after all it is a role which Muscat excelled in when he lead the Navy Blues to their first double in the 2007/08 A-League season. But it will depend on how much faith Merrick has in his back four on keeping a clean sheet, with new captain Adrian Leijer doing an outstanding job leading the team in Muscat’s absence so far.
As for predictions, it would be hard to tip against Gamba at home but with the J-League yet to commence and with most of their squad still in off-season mode, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Gamba were caught off guard by a rampaging Melbourne side looking to prove a point.
Melbourne 2-1 for mine
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