Melbourne Victory climbed from the canvas to steal a 2-2 away draw against arch rivals Adelaide United in Friday night’s A-League grudge match.
The Victory scored twice in the final 15 minutes to share the spoils before a record A-League crowd in Adelaide of 16,504 spectators at Coopers Stadium.
The Reds, with Sergio Cirio scoring from a questionable penalty and Jeronimo Neumann tapping-in from close range, appeared set to bank consecutive home wins to open their campaign.
But Melbourne substitute Guilherme Finkler netted in the 79th minute and James Troisi equalised three minutes before fulltime of a pulsating fixture.
Melbourne and their coach Ange Postecoglou, in possibly his last match in charge of the Victory as he eyes the Socceroos’ coaching job, could have won if not for rotten first-half luck.
The visitors were unlucky to concede the penalty and also had a clear-cut Mitch Nichols goal disallowed by a referee’s error.
Argentine striker Jeronimo featured in the two opening goals, creating the first when awarded a dubious penalty.
Jeronimo and Victory goalkeeper Nathan Coe steamed at each other, with the ball between them, in the 20th minute and the Reds’ frontman milked slight contact, diving forward, and referee Alan Milliner awarded a penalty.
Adelaide recruit Sergio Cirio scored twice from the spot: his initial conversion was disallowed, then he fooled Coe with a shrewd second attempt, aimed in a different direction than the first.
Two minutes later, Jeronimo goaled after Adelaide’s lively substitute Awer Mabil launched a speculative shot from just inside the box.
The ball deflected from Melbourne defender Adrian Leijer, struck the near post and, by chance, fell to Jeronimo who tapped-in.
Melbourne should have reduced the deficit in the 35th minute when Archie Thomson, after a piercing run, had Reds’ goalkeeper Eugene Galekovic beat but elected to feed Nichols instead.
Nichols scored from five metres, only to be incorrectly ruled offside.
Melbourne turned the tide in the second half but a series of shots – from Leijer, Troisi and Kosta Barbarouses – all narrowly missed.
But substitute Finkler’s 79th minute score, from a classy low blast on the turn, gave the visitors hope.
And three minutes into injury time, a Troisi scorcher hit the cross-bar and barely bounced over the line for the equaliser.
Melbourne Victory coach Ange Postecoglou said refereeing mistakes cost his side the win.
He said the first-half penalty awarded to Adelaide, and the offside ruling which denied Nichols a goal, were “absolutely stone-cold bad decisions”.
“I don’t think it was a fair result,” he said.
“If it wasn’t for the referees’ intervention in the first half, it would have been quite convincing.
“A penalty that never was, a goal that was a clear goal – they’re not small decisions.”
Adelaide United coach Josep Gombau blamed tiredness for the late fadeout of his side, who had two days less to prepare for the match than the Victory.
“My team was very tired because we had just five days to recover,” he said.
“In the end, a draw was good for us because they (Melbourne) created a lot of chances.”
mahonjt
Guest
Got to agree. It is a very sad situation, but after years of rolling skirmishes the charter is doing what it is designed to do. When (if) the fans decide to get back inside the tend and do what they did u years 1 and 2 of the league it will be a watershed moment for active support in Melbourne.
mahonjt
Guest
The second goal was also technicaly off side. I will forgive the refs as they need to give the benefit of any doubt to the attacking team - but still, two clearly incorrect decisions if you ignore the 2nd goal. Attrocious.
Professor Rosseforp
Guest
As a neutral I enjoyed the match. The penalty could be argued either way, but I thought the ref was courageous to disallow the first penalty attempt because of the entrance into the penalty area by the attacking team. More goalkeepers should be penalised for that sort of defence move, although if it was a penalty, I would have thought the goalie should have been sent off. Apart from the incorrect offside call, I thought the linesmen did a good job in policing the offside rule -- it gave the defence confidence to work the offside trap well. Plenty of marginally offside goals are are allowed, so this was tit for tat, I suppose. The game WAS good, but one reason was because both sides had major problems holding the ball -- as a result, possession changed and kept changing.
Dan
Guest
Fussball, Hasn't it occurred to you that that is the very reason why they are manipulating the figures downwards? Foxsports DON'T want to pay $100M per year for the tv rights! What better way is there to keep the cost of the rights at a fraction of their true value than having a secret arrangement between the fta networks not to bid against Foxsports for the rights by pretending that nobody in Australia has any interest in the game!
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
"1st MVFC A-league home game on FTA and not one supporter will be in the NT active area, the atmosphere will be abysmal." I watched last night's match at home. My enjoyment was not diminished the slightest by the fact that there was no one singing & chanting in the TV room .. although, I'm sure I nearly got evicted from the house for breaching the "no swearing rules"! :-)
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Dan, you are spot on. The whole industry knows this & SBS is working with OzTAM to find a solution. This article appeard in The Australian earlier his year: OzTAM 'missing' SBS's ethnic viewers http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/sbss-ethnic-viewers-missing/story-e6frg996-1226584594718 But, for now, a good "rule of thumb" is to multiply the OzTAM figures by 1.7 to arrive at a more accurate viewing figure for SBS. Hence, the 5-city figures would be Wk1 = 282k Wk2 = 298k Which is about 40% of the Friday Night 5-city FTA Tv ratings for AFL & NRL. If these A-League figures are maintained we can expect A-League TV rights to be valued around $100m p.a. when the next deal is done.
Realfootball
Guest
With active supporters like that, who needs enemies. Behaving like a bunch of spoiled kids.
Dan
Guest
Do you guys really believe these figures are accurate? It's about time that SBS 'bit the bullet' and retained Roy Morgan Research (an 'independent' and 'unbiased' ratings company) as it's preferred ratings agency partner to get the true and accurate figures. Figures from Roy Morgan I will believe. I do not believe that the published figures that originate from Oztam (owned entirely by CH's 7, 9 & 10 - who are only interested in manipulating the figures in their own favour) of Football's television ratings appeal are anywhere near the truth.
Jukes
Guest
That should look great on TV :P
Garcia
Guest
The entire allocated active area for the North Terrace will be empty next Friday night with the BWB now joining the rest of the North Terrace in boycotting the designated area. Well done to MVFC for destroying one of its greatest assets. 1st MVFC A-league home game on FTA and not one supporter will be in the NT active area, the atmosphere will be abysmal.
Midfielder
Guest
Fall in regional numbers could be Newcastle ...
Jukes
Guest
This is exactly the sort of game that can draw new fans to the games. Was a high quality game. I thought it was brilliant. If only Johnny was here to see.
Melange
Guest
Don't always have to be a neutral to ignore them, the focus for me when Roar beat CCM in the GF was on the fantastic spectacle I was lucky enough to witness. I, like Ange that day, ignored the fact that both Roars' goals should have been disallowed. Ange is usually a bit calmer about the game, maybe too much is playing on his mind, he doesn't usually bleat as much as he did about bad decisions. And ppl think Arnie is bad, Ange was pretty pathetic last night.
Cameron
Roar Guru
Going to another cracker of a match for fta sbs 2. Victory vs Roar, could it have been scripted any better if it were to be his last match
Cameron
Roar Guru
I don't think it will be that figure. I think just over 20k. They talk a lot of smack.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Excellent game - close to the best I've seen MVFC playing since Ange joined. Even when we were 2-0 behind, in the 2nd half, I was more than happy with the number of chances we were creating & continuously getting behind AUFC's defence. If we play at this level for every match - happy days. Docklands will be configured into a rectangular stadium (Level 1 on the wings & behind the goals will be moved in) for Friday night's match vs Roar and, if this is Ange's last match in charge of MVFC ... against his old club, we'd expect close to 40k. And, it's live on SBS2.
Jukes
Guest
I am a big fan of Troisi's. He didn't have as good a game as last week, but there are still plenty of great signs from him. He is combining very well with Nichols and the longer those two player together the better. Yesterday he just seemed to try to force a few things, but I thought he still played well, very nice goal scored. He is in my fantasy team so the more goals I can get from him the better. :D
Ian
Guest
I've read Mulvey saying 30,000 QLDers turning up. I don't like big numbers getting spruiked before hand (unless they actually happen). I thought 25,000 was a big enough figure when cracking 20,000 is the initial barrier for a game like this. Though I've read all 3 Den Bays are sold out which is a first since the grand finals.
Ballymore
Guest
Pulsating match on an immaculate pitch, full stadium with two teams playing admirably. Ferreira and Jeronimo's interplay down the right flank in the 1st half was lovely to watch. Mabil was dynamic. I will be interested to find out as the season progresses whether ADE are unfit, or their collapse reflected a short turnaround, playing with 9 last week and MV having all the possession in the 2nd half. Appalling refereeing, showed great character from MV to get something from that match. Would have been easy to shrug their shoulders and claim it wasn't their night. AP seems to instil belief in his teams that they can always get something. Did anyone else feel Troisi's goal covered an otherwise unproductive performance? Thompson has been peripheral two matches in a row (channelling Berisha for offsides?), can't remember that happening for ages. Cracking game, everyone involved deserves much credit (expect the referee and the ARs).
Cameron
Roar Guru
FoxSports ADL vMVC match ratings: STV 97k Post-game 81k