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.
MV Pty Ltd
Guest
Nope. MV demanded capacity be increased before they signed on as a tenant and increased it was.
Mateo Corbo
Guest
Why assume MV are a higher quality club than Muangthong? The whole article smacks of arrogance similar to the socceroos first effort in the Asian Cup - Assumed superiority over Asians.
Australian Rules
Guest
"the Vic Government built to MVFC’s specifications." ?..Ah, did the Vic Govt also build it to the Heart's, Storm's and Rebel's specifications?
Cam Mann
Roar Rookie
The reason A-League is ranked so lowly is because almost every team plays like rubbish outside of the domestic league. The rankings are based on performances of not only the A-League, but of the Asian Champions Leauge which houses some amazing talent and a lot of money. Guangzhou Evergrande, for example, is the richest club in Asia, rivaling the highest levels of Europe. If A-League sides start adapting to the playing against these Asian sides and progressing further then the rankings will shoot up.
James Anderson
Roar Guru
It was only a hopeful shot that eventually got us ahead. My point exactly melbourneterrace. We had a penalty, Troisi had two clear cut chances in the first half. Archie had a sitter in front of goal and we looked like the better team for most of the game. Melbourne were lacking in the final touch in front of goal As I said in my article, Muangthong had their chances, Teerisil showed why Spain is looming, and Muangthong, on the break, were quite lethal. You'd expect this from any team whose played in the ACL before. I was quite aware of Bothroyd and Teerisil, but I still expected Melbourne to dominate, which, for the most part, they did. My article was written to point out how Melbourne lacks in the final touch, which they obviously do, because of the plethora of chances missed. If you disagree that Melbourne were the better team against Muangthong, I have to ask why your name is melbounreterrace, and if you're just trying to start an argument, im not interested. I certainly did not mean any disrespect to the Thai league, but I stand by my comment that they're behind th A-League.
Skonkie Dynasty
Guest
There was a report specifically in the Geelong Advertiser on the poor sportsmanship of the Thai players 'diving' and 'carrying on' today. Geelong Addy is a long time supporter of soccer too. The AFC and FIFA have got to step in, this disgusting style is NOT attracting fans and pushing people away. http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/sport/melbourne-victory-snatch-a-win-in-21-thriller/story-fnjuhrhu-1226829380769 A small excerpt from the Geelong Addy today. "For those who have never watched much of the Asian game this was an eye opening experience. It is also something the Melbourne Victory players had planned for. “We expect that when we play Asian countries. They tend to play on a fine edge,” Victory star Archie Thompson said. “We knew that any little tackle they would go down softly. “I don’t think they have gone down as much as we have seen in the past.” The second half was the same."
Football United
Guest
This. How can you even make such statements of the quality of the league when you know absolutely zero about it. Extremely poor article.
Garcia
Guest
Apparently Robson said on SEN they'll all be at Docklands. Can't wait for the AFL to buy docklands and banish MVFC to playing all their home matches at the state of the art $300,000,000 rectangular stadium that the Vic Government built to MVFC's specifications.
melbourneterrace
Guest
If we do give move some games to AAMI Park which would be a welcome change, I would expect at least the Guangzhou game to stay there seeing how they are Asia's Mega team. I absolutely despise Etihad but i don't see how the AFL have any say when we have a long term contract to play there as well as all our games being midweek.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
Your loss. There was one time wasting incident, and that was from one of the foreign players from Muangthong.
langou
Roar Guru
"No, I haven’t watched any Thai Premier League matches" "I agree the Thai domestic football is improving every year" ????
mahonjt
Guest
Nail - Head
mahonjt
Guest
Spot on. What a load of uninformed, disrespectful rubbish this article is. There is so much about it that is wrong that I am not even going to bother.
melbourneterrace
Guest
What utter nonsense. So apparently on one game of a one legged tie played in a venue over 7000km away from the Visiting teams venue you can conclude the standard of the entire Thai league. Last year Buriram with multiple players missing, completely crowded Brisbane's midfield and shut down the best team the A-League has seen, they should have won well before penalties. Using your logic, we can judge that the Thai League is much better. And Melbourne hardly dominated the game, Muangthong hardly pressed Melbourne at all, in contrast to about every team in the A-League they allowed Melbourne to take the ball forward into their half in order to take advantage of Melbourne's slow Centre backs in it's high line. Even when we were effectively given the ball, we were consistently wasteful in recycling possession as well as multiple sloppy attempts to move the ball from midfield to the forwards through the middle of the pitch. We might have had some clear cut chances after possession but Muangthong were very fast on the counter and Teerasil Dangda got in behind Victory's defence several times and should have doubled Muangthong's lead just after the break and Durovski had his chances as well. It was only a hopeful shot that eventually got us ahead.
James Anderson
Roar Guru
Thats a ridiculous comment 'melbourneterrace'. Look at how Melbourne dominated the match against Muangthong. Every time they attacked they got in behind and looked like scoring, but they didn't score, hence the article. For 60 minutes of the match Muangthong were dominated by Melbourne, but held on at 1-0. This summarizes the A-League season to date - teams playing relatively good football, but lacking with the final touch in front of goal. All but Adeliade who are now looking unstoppable. No, I haven't watched any Thai Premier League matches, but I watched the way our Melbourne Victory dominated in possession and attack against the 'top team in Thailand'. So, therefore, if they're the top team, and Melbourne should've won 5-0, but could only manage 2-1, then I'd say the A-League is a higher standard than the Thai Premier League, or a supposed higher standard, if we could score goals. No disrespect to them, of course.
Garcia
Guest
Interesting, MVFC's draw till the end of the ACL has just been released by the club with all venues To Be Advised? Hearing that the AFL may be a questioning MVFC's right to play at Etihad (Despite MVFC having this detail per-existing contract with Etihad to play all ACL games at the stadium). Here's hoping that we play at least one game at Swan St http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/melbournevictory/news-display/Busy-Champions-League-schedule-ahead/86264
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
I suspect the score-line is more a result of the narrow pitch than anything. It would have been interesting to see how the game would have panned out with a bit more width.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Based on my limited exposure their national team & domestic teams during ACL matches, I would never make any disparaging comments about the quality of Thai football. Apart from that, I agree with much of this article. PS: Roar Sub-editors: The headline you've inserted does NOT at all reflect the content of the article. Did the sub-editors read the article, or just insert a headline based on preconceived bias?
melbourneterrace
Guest
Adelaide has been an exception the rule, Australia will not be a consistent force in Asia for a long time as the effects of the salary cap go beyond simple squad restriction, the cyclic nature of the league means big teams are not given consistent experience in Asia and thus have to go through the learning curve of continental football each time they qualify, made even more difficult due to squad changes after a year between qualification and the group stages. Teams like Guangzhou Evergrande, Beijing Guoan, FC Seoul and Gamba Osaka (before relegation) were very hard to beat because they were regulars in Asia and had the experience to see out games.
melbourneterrace
Guest
Surely we should dominate a Thai squad and win with ease. It's this arrogance that does us no favours in Asia, we are not a big league and MVFC is not a big club in Asia. Muangthong and their counterparts Buriram are are by far the top teams in Thailand. I bet you haven't even watched one full Thai Premier League match or an ACL game involving one of the big two. They possess the majority of the Thai squad in their ranks and Buriram have done exceptionally well in Asia recently. Other teams in their league might be making up numbers to some extent but Buriram and Muangthong squads are that much better than Chonburi at the moment.