Heart once again wasteful in front of goal

For the second consecutive week John Aloisi’s Melbourne Heart have been wasteful in front of goal, butchering many chances in the 1-1 draw with the Wellington Phoenix.

Heart controlled most of the contest and created many opportunities with Richard Garcia, Fred and Josip Tadic all having opportunities to kick a second decisive goal.

The performance mirrored a similar attacking efficiency to that against the Victory in round one, as Dylan Macallister and David Williams both scored but also failed to dispatch chances. Lucky for Aloisi and his Heart, they held on to a half-time 2-1 lead.

The difference between the two games though is the second goal. Against the Victory Macallister gave his new side the lead just before half-time, after Williams opened the scoring and Marco Rojas equalised.

But on Sunday the second goal didn’t come, and skipper Fred and Garcia were the major offenders.

Fred did well to manoeuvre into the box, but chipped wide instead of simply putting his foot through it, before débutante Phoenix ‘keeper Jacob Spoonley pulled off a superb low save.

Garcia was a huge aerial threat getting on the end of Dugandzic’s curling set-pieces, although the former Socceroo could only direct the ball over, prior to clipping the crossbar with a back post header.

Croatian forward Tadic did considerably well on the left wing during his starting début, but like Fred was denied by Spoonley. After cutting in from the left he could only curl into the hands of the on loan ‘keeper, before Spoonley’s fingertips stopped the former Dinamo Zagreb forward from scoring his first A-League goal.

Heart’s best chance to bury Wellington came via Macallister, but his low effort was magnificently cleared off the line by defender Michael Boxall.

Heart out of all A-League sides should be the least worried about finishing, after all, Aloisi is a former Socceroos striker who scored 27 goals in 55 international appearances and also found the net in the big three leagues: the English Premier League, Spanish La Liga and Italian Serie A.

Surely then someone of Aloisi’s calibre would be able to improve the finishing efficiency of his side.

One thing that is certain is that Heart will be looking to improve their accuracy in front of goal during training and against Perth on Sunday.

Against a tough Glory side away would mean that Heart may not have so many chances, like the last two games, signifying how crucial every opportunity would be.

In football goals win games, so if Heart’s poor finishing continues their good start to the season could all be for nothing.