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My initial reaction to Melbourne Victory’s 2-1 win over Muangthong United was shock.
How could, for 60 minutes of an Asian Champions League qualifier, a domestic squad from Thailand look like defeating one of the best teams our national competition has to offer?
Surely we should dominate a Thai squad and win with ease.
But the A-League does not produce a high enough standard of football for us to be fussy. Any win is a win when you sit at 99th in the domestic football league world rankings.
Shockingly, the Thailand Premier League, according to the International Federation of Football History and Statistics, has a better quality of football than Australia, ranked 63rd in the World.
So it seems we should be proud of beating a team that hails from a competition that is supposedly 36 places above the A-League’s level.
Well the performance was far better than the result. Melbourne outplayed Muangthong for large periods of the game; Troisi should’ve scored a hat-trick, Archie Thompson should have scored at least one, and of course there was the missed penalty from skipper Mark Milligan.
If Melbourne continues to compete like they do – playing brilliantly and getting in behind the opposition defence more times than not, but failing to score goals – then the A-League’s status will stay as is.
We shouldn’t be content with 2-1 wins against weak opposition. Sure Muangthong had their moments, but they certainly cannot be called strong opposition.
Of even more concern was the amount of quality saves that Nathan Coe was forced to make.
Melbourne’s defence has been the worst in the league in recent weeks, but that’s no excuse for coming so close to conceding more than 2 goals against the Thai team.
Essentially, the A-League has the potential to one day be in the top twenty leagues in the world.
The performance against Muangthong United was dominant but not ideal, and if the A-League’s status is going to rise, we cannot be satisfied with victories such as this against Asian opponents – we need to win comfortably, the same way that Chinese and Japanese teams are.
I guess the real test will come in ensuing weeks, but from recent performances, my expectations aren’t too high for a domineering display at the 2014 ACL.
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